Pilgrimage of a Thousand Years
by Shadray
Summary: ‘‘That’s right, Summoner.’’ The Fayth nodded at the slim young woman in front of it. ‘‘Sin is back.’’ A thousand years into the past, can Lenne bring the Eternal Calm that Yunalesca could not? Lenne gaped with widened eyes and breathed, ‘‘Oh my God…’’
1. An Unwelcome Surprise

Author's Notes: Hello there, my faithful reviewers (I hope). Before I start _anything, _I'm going to give you a short prologue-ish/summary-ish thing, so that you can understand the fic:

_"A thousand years ago, Spira was a world ripe with conflict and hatred. Two city-states, the machina-heavy Bevelle and the summoner city of Zanarkand, were at each other's throats. _

_In a surprise attack, Bevelle took the upper hand and vanquished Zanarkand. The survivors gathered under the guidance of Yevon, their leader, believed to be the most powerful summoner alive, and fled to the nearby Mt. Gagazet. There, having at last gained some respite from the pursuing forces of Bevelle, the people of Zanarkand decided on a drastic and definite course of action: refusing to admit the fall of their beloved city, they let themselves be turned into fayths, all gathered in a massive wall on Gagazet's slopes, to begin dreaming of a new, ideal Zanarkand, eternally holding alive the memory of its former glory._

_Yevon, as the most powerful summoner, then began drawing on this dream and summoning it into a huge aeon._

_In order to protect himself while summoning, he gathered stray pyreflies around him with powerful gravity spells, forming a formidable armor which would soon become known as 'Sin'._

_In order not to get distracted from his summoning, Yevon programed a series of guiding instincts into Sin: among them, to attack any larger human settlement and to respond to aggression with overwhelming force. From that point onward, Sin would become a terror uniting Spira under a common fear. Sin's first actions were to complete the destruction of the real Zanarkand, and to demonstrate its strength by routing the pursuing Bevellian army."_

_Within the Machina War, there was an appalling incident between Lenne, Zanarkand's most famous singer, and Shuyin, a renowned blitzer._

_This is their story._

Mega thanks to Mario Laubacher for allowing me to use certain parts of his FAQ in my summary (the part in quotes)

Author's Notes: Once again, it is me, Shadray, your favorite author! Right?

If you have ever played FFX-2, you may know some info about the main character of this fanfiction. If not, you really don't have to know her to understand the story, because I am starting from the beginning. This fic is NOT the exact same as what really happened in the game, because I found the real story to be quite dull and boring and short. So I've tweaked the story so that it can be interesting to the reader!

Hopefully, you have at least played FFX. If so, you will realize that this story is somewhat similar to Tidus's and Yuna's, but still different, because it occurs 1000 years _before_ the game. There are many similar characters from Yuna's pilgrimage, but none of them are the same (or ARE they?) so just bear with the story.

Oh crap. Shadray, you idiot! Why would you start a story so many original characters? Don't you realize how hard it is to give those people a personality that the readers all enjoy?

People, please give the OC's a chance. I will strive to make my characters likable! If you have any suggestions, please tell me in the review!

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy X, X-2, X-3, X-4, or X-13098519834. In short, I don't own this game.

_Note: Whenever I use italics in the story, it means that someone is thinking something. Oh, and by the way, I rated this fic 'T' because of some language and a few . . . er . . . themes._

* * *

Chapter 1: An Unwelcome Surprise 

The setting sun cast an elegant beam of scarlet light, brightening the machina-filled area with warmth and scenic radiance. A limitless city with flashing lights . . . A city that never sleeps . . . Zanarkand. Massive structures of metal towered above the city, overlooking everything below them as diminutive jets soared through the sky. It was a complex city where machina did most of the work; still, there were many human residents.

On a congested street, outside of a famous singer's house, were hundreds of excited fans, jumping up and down as they shouted and chanted for the pop star to come out. Police cars were freely parked out on the corner of the street, but the cops were busy trying to stop the impatient fans from starting a riot. Who knew what could happen? Anything could happen on such a special occasion.

And yes, it was a very special occasion. Tonight was the night of the concert—the one that everyone had been looking forward to for the past few months. And to the fans, the "past few months" had seemed like decades and decades of nonstop waiting.

Suddenly, cheerful squeals from the girls silenced everyone after hearing the front entrance to the house creak its way open. Every eye faced the door, and every body turned towards the mansion as a longhaired brunette with a teeny-weeny skirt stepped out onto the front porch and waved to her fans, grinning.

Everyone screamed.

If the groupies were excited before, they were now going insane, thrusting everyone out of they way so they could finally see their idol in person. Some fans stood on fences, trying to get a good look, some stood on their tiptoes, and some merely fainted onto the concrete ground, but everyone bawled with joy as the singer made her way past the front porch.

Three eager teens shoved their way through the deafening horde to touch the songstress as she descended into the crowd, only to be carried away by bodyguards.

"Lenne! LENNE! I LOOVE YOU, YOU ARE SO HOTTT! CAALL MEE!" one of them cried as he was reluctantly pulled away from the scene. Lenne smiled at the sight of her loyal fans jumping up and down for her.

Her elegant cerulean eyes glistened with pleasure as another group of admirers scurried over to her.

"Can you sign my cheek?" a small blonde boy pleaded, poking his head out at his hero. Lenne saw more bodyguards attempting to carry the boy away, but she quickly frowned at them, and they left, shrugging.

"Sure thing. And what's your name?"

"Jamie!"

The nineteen-year-old dug into her pockets, snatched out a black pen, and placed her hand on the boy's cheek, writing Lenne—for Jamie in cursive letters. The boy touched his cheek, amazed that his ultimate idol just wrote on his face. It all seemed too good to be true.

"Lenne!" exlaimed a small girl behind him, maybe at the age of four or five. The girl lightly tugged on Lenne's leg as she squealed childishly.

Lenne was going to respond until she saw a small boy with a hood pulled over his face come from the screaming swarm of fans. He leaned against Lenne and whispered something slightly in her ear. "Do not spend too long here. You must go." He then made his way back into the crowd, leaving Lenne and the girl.

Lenne forced a smile onto her dry lips and tilted her head sideways, thinking deeply. The boy was right—she didn't have much more time to waste—she was already late for her performance. What would Reina say when she arrived backstage with no makeup, dress, or lipstick on? Reina would probably go mad; she was always that way—and so was Darian.

And on top of that, what about the other fans already at the stadium, waiting impatiently for her? They were probably rioting at this very moment, chanting impetuous phrases. In her last concert six months ago, this was exactly what happened. Riots, fights, impatient fans. . .

Lenne shivered at the thought, but then brought her attention to the five-year-old in front of her.

"Hi there, sweetie. What's your name?"

"Mary-Joa!" the girl exclaimed in a raspy voice.

_What kind of name is that_?

Nevertheless, she kindly responded, "Mary-Joa? Oh, that is the cutest name! I wish my name was Mary-Joa . . ."

"Really?"

"Of course!"

The girl blushed, but otherwise said nothing.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Joa?" Lenne wanted to sound as sweet as possible.

"Sign my blitzball!" She held up a navy-blue ball with white streaks in front of her face and grinned.

Lenne reached into her pocket and brought out a black pen, signing _Lenne—for Mary-Joa_ on the front of the blitzball. Or maybe it wasn't the front. Maybe it was the side. But who really cared?

Mary beamed at her idol and cupped her hands together, bowing politely. She then ran off into the crowd.

Lenne managed to slip away from the swarm of anxious groupies before taking in a deep breath of fresh air. Her heart pounded heavily on her chest as a grin escaped her lips. She was much too wound up to wait any longer for the concert to start; she could already picture herself up on stage, before thousands of people, singing to her heart's content.

Quietly humming a random tune to herself, she remembered rehearsing at her house a zillion times, and now she finally seemed ready for the big moment in front of her loyal fans. Lenne could feel anxiety surge through her body as she dug deeper and deeper into her thoughts.

Up on stage was where she felt most secure, whether she was singing or acting or dancing—anything, really. Ever since _Sin_ first attacked her home in Kilika, she found a new interest in the arts, and to this day, she still held it dear to her.

Lenne repeated the word, "Sin" over and over again in her mind, scowling each time. Her glistening eyes suddenly gave a very solemn look as she continued walking to the stadium, her high heels clicking on the pavement.

Sin . . . . That evil fish that had destroyed her original home, her parents, and her neighboring friends. . .Lenne hated it. Supposedly, if all Spirans "atoned for their sins", Yevon, their god, would forgive them, and Sin would perish into nothing—or at least, this was what the priests told everyone.

But then again, the priests also told everyone that machina were not permitted in the eyes of Yevon—yet the entire city of Zanarkand was full of machina.

Finally reaching the glass doors of the stadium, Lenne snapped out of her thoughts. She could still see the crowded fans gathered just outside of her house, wondering where she had gone to. Quietly slipping backstage, she shut the door behind her and dropped to the ground, crawling to her dressing room. Lenne wanted no one to see her entering; if someone did, the anxious fans would become twice as impatient. Plus, she still had to change clothes, brush her hair, and do all of that other tiresome crap.

Creeping across a dusty, narrow strip of a hallway, she looked up and spotted a wooden door, labeled "**DRESSING ROOM—AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY**" in giant, bold letters. Directly in front of the door was a three-way intersection, including the hallway that she was currently crawling though and two others.

Lenne peered around both corners of the intersection and swore quitely under her breath.

To the right were several guards, marching up and down the hallway, as if very cautious to make sure that no one would enter any room without permission. In a sense, it was a good thing that there was such first-class security, considering that a rapist or molester or something could be sneaking around the premises.

But then again, there were way too many security guards for Lenne to slip by unnoticed, especially since there were just as many guards on the other hallway. It would take some serious doing for her to do this.

Lenne was just about to go for it when a tall figure in a loose leather jacket approached from behind.

"Lenne? Is that you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing on the floor?"

Lenne nearly screamed in surprise, before whirling around to see her old friend staring at her. "Darian, you idiot! Don't _startle _me like that!"

Laughing, Darian responded. "Okay, okay! Calm yourself, I didn't mean to scare you."

"_Scare_ me? You almost _killed_ me! Can't you see I'm trying to sneak . . ."

"Trying to sneak. . . .?"

Lenne stood up, careful not to step into the other hallway. "Darian, can you get me into my room without those guards noticing?"

"Why?" Darian gave his friend a tiresome glare. "You're famous. Do it yourself."

"Darian!"

"Okay, okay. I'll distract them. But you know, everyone's wondering where you've been, right? Everybody's really worried that you won't show up."

"I know that, but I thought I'd be here—you know—fashionably late," Lenne lied, staring hard at the floor. She hadn't really come late on purpose, of course. It was because of those damn stalkers outside of her house.

"Lenne? Are you serious? You're supposed to do that at a _high school party_, not at a damn concert!" Darian cried in a matter-of-fact sort of way. "And why don't you just walk right in, anyway? You are a _star_! Those guards don't care whether you're late or not; they're just doing their job."

"They don't, but the fans do."

With a short sigh, Darian shook his head and walked off into the hallway. "Guards!" he called.

Each security guard approached Darian. "There is a . . .a burglar. . .lurking around the premises. . ." He paused to let a fake tear tread down his cheek to make his act seem that much more realistic. "He threatened to kill. . ."

"Say no more. We'll get him," one of the bulky guards interrupted rudely, pulling out his gun. He turned around to nod to all of the others. One by one, they carefully marched out of the hallway, clutching their rifles.

As each guard left, Lenne laid low, careful not to create a ruckus. When all was quiet, she peeked around the corner and saw no one but Darian standing in the hallway, still fake-crying.

"You can stop that now, Darian. They're gone," Lenne said.

-

Shuyin glared blankly at the empty stage in front of him. Dust bunnies crawled across the bare platform, obviously because of the fact that the theatre hadn't been used for years. The burgundy curtains behind the stage remained unopened, and all that could be seen behind them were angry shadows yelling and screaming at each other backstage.

Turning his attention toward the ticket on his lap, he scowled. Had he spent all of that well-earned cash on this ticket _just _so that he could stare at an empty stage? Of course, hundreds of other fans were unhappily waiting for the concert to start as well, but that wasn't what he'd come for. He had come to see the star—or better yet, he had come to see _Lenne_. _Not _an empty stage. He had paid five thousand gil for _this_? Hell no.

A famous blitzball star shouldn't have to suffer this way. No, of course not. Waiting for two hours for the show to begin was just ridiculous, right?

A livid feeling of hate rushed through his body. Shuyin angrily picked up a handful of unpopped popcorn kernels from his bag and chucked them at a nearby seat. Satisfied, Shuyin smiled to himself weakly.

But the seat was not empty. In fact, a large male had been peacefully sitting there, munching happily on his chocolate bar. But when the popcorn kernels made contact with his man-boob, he was no longer peaceful.

"You FREAK!" he screeched. Pivoting his fat neck toward Shuyin, he rudely hurled a soda can behind him.

Shuyin nearly had to jump out of his seat to dodge it. Just barely flying past his ear, he heard a _splat! _as the can missed him and hit an in innocent man in the—

"OWW!" he bellowed, forcing the entire theatre to stop and turn around, suddenly interested in the scene. "WHO THREW THAT?"

When no one responded, the man's eyes widened with fury as he flung an enormous sack of popcorn back toward Shuyin.

"FOOD FIGHT!" cried a small boy from behind all of the action.

And so the chaos began.

People from all over the theatre were no longer interested in the upcoming concert performance, but were now enjoying themselves by joining the "food fight" that had begun with a mere nineteen-year-old's anger. Food and soda flew everywhere, but no one seemed to care enough to even stop and pick them up. Although this kind of thing usually happened at school cafeterias, it seemed as though the fight would never cease. Popcorn lay spread out on the floor, spilled soda on the seats. . .no one had the sense enough _not _to participate. Lenne was right—there _was _a riot.

-

"Lenne, are you ready _yet_?"

Slipping into her dress, Lenne sighed and answered the bothersome seventeen-year-old. "No, Darian, I'm not ready. I'm almost done . . . just be patient."

She could hear him mutter something under his breath, but nevertheless, he left her alone.

Lenne stared into the glass mirror in front of her as she began fiddling with her hair. Running a hand through it, she sighed once more and moaned to her reflection, "Must I wear this?"

"_Yes_," her reflection replied.

Or not.

The reflection glared back at her, replicating her doubtful expression.

"Figures," she mumbled to herself. Sure, she was used to dressing up, but not like this. Do people usually wear wedding dresses to concerts? She hoped so, because it was too late to change back.

_"Hurry UP!"_ cried an impatient Darian from outside of the door.

Shaking her head, Lenne stood up and took one last look at her mirror image.

She saw before her, a gorgeous nineteen-year-old with light, brunette hair tied up in a tight, firm bun. The girl had a slim, hourglass figure that leaned on the metal desk in front of the mirror. The fan at the edge of the room blew a slight breeze her way, shifting her hair a bit, but she still looked the same. As the girl in the mirror fixed her dress strap, she smiled a graceful smile that lit up the room.

"I said, _HURRY UP_, LENNE!"

Rolling her eyes, Lenne brought her attention to the door and walked up to it, opened it with a _slam, _and smacked Darian.

Outside the dressing room, she caught a glimpse of Reina, leaning against a wall angrily. When she noticed her, she beamed, letting her eyes sparkle under the stage lights.

She flung her blonde hair behind her shoulders. "Why in _Yevon's name _are you so late! We all thought you stayed home, Lennie!"

"Reina, for the gillionth time, my name is _Lenne_," she said slowly, "not Lennie."

"Oh, who cares? Right now we have a PROBLEM. The fans out there have just _lost it_, okay? They're throwing food, soda, chocolate—"

Lenne gave an assuring look to her friend. "They'll calm down once I go out there."

Reina didn't look so sure.

"It'll be fine!"

"Okay, okay," the fifteen-year-old began. "Did you memorize your lyrics?"

"Memorize them? I _wrote _them! Plus, if I forget, I'll just. . .uh. . .make them up?"

When she saw Reina frown, she quickly added, "But I won't forget them in the first place, right?"

"Right. Go get 'em, Lennie!" Reina quickly rushed off stage as the red curtains in front of Lenne gradually opened, little by little.

Readying herself for the moment she'd been practicing for months, Lenne forced a smile onto her lips. It was her way of ridding herself of tension. She could feel the anxiety of being stared at by hundreds of people slowly fade away, until it finally dwindled into nothing.

She took in a deep breath as the curtain completely exposed her to the food fight. At once, the impolite yelling was hushed by the squealing of the girls in the front row as they finally set their eyes on the prepossessing young woman striding towards the edge of the stage.

Lenne blushed slightly, but she wasn't embarrassed in the least bit. She had no right to be. She was right where she wanted to be all day long, and it was her fault that she'd chosen to wear a wedding dress. Still, it didn't really matter to her what she was dressed in. Not to her, at least.

Her black high heels clicked as she slowly brought herself to the microphone.

"Zanarkand." She smiled as she spoke. "I would like to thank each and every one of you for what you have showed me."

Lenne paused to look out into the crowd. Everyone had their eyes on her—she had everybody's attention. So many people. . .she could hardly count. Were there hundreds or thousands? Thousands or millions? Millions or billions? _However_ many there were, they were all staring at her with interest—well, more like, the men stared at her with interest.

"You have all showed me. . .what a pleasure it is to have friends. So, I've dedicated a song to you all. It has no title."

She cleared her throat and waited for the crowd's applause to die down before beginning.

_"My heart was swimming  
__in words gathered by the wind  
__My voice bounded  
__into a cloud-carried tomorrow.  
__My heart trembled  
__in the moon-swayed mirror  
__Soft tears  
__spilled with a stream of stars."_

As Lenne sang, she felt the ground tremble beneath her feet. Strange.

_"Isn't it beautiful?  
__If we could walk, hand in hand."_

What was going on?

_"I'd want to go  
__to your town, your home, in your arms.  
__I dream of leaning  
__against you  
__my body in your keeping  
__disappearing into the evening."_

. . .Something wasn't right.

_"Words halted by wind are  
__a gentle illusion  
__A tomorrow torn by clouds is  
__the voice of a distant place."_

. . .It was becoming too much to bear.

_"My heart that had been  
__in a moon-blurred mirror that flowed  
__Those stars that trembled and spilled  
__cannot hide my tears."_

What WAS this?

_"Isn't it beautiful?  
__If we could walk, hand in hand,  
__I'd want to go  
__to your town, your home, in your arms.  
__"My dream of  
__your face  
__that I softly touch  
__melts—"_

Before getting the chance to sing to last three words of her song, Lenne was rudely interrupted as a large woman dashed into the theatre, screaming, _"ATTACK!"

* * *

_


	2. A Summoner's Destruction

Author's Notes: Well, I'm so happy that people actually liked this that I'll actually write another chapter! And then, after that, I'll write another one! And another, and another, and another, until I finish the fic! (Oh wait, I was going to do that in the first place.) I hope you guys don't get the idea that I'll be updating at this rate, because I won't! I promise, my next update will come much sooner than this one did.

Wow, eleven reviews? Already? (beams) How awesome! For being my first reviewers, you all have won two chocobo plushies, a pic of Lenne and Shuyin, and five billion gil! But the bad part is, it is all fake. Therefore, you win nothing! (everyone groans disappointedly) Well, actually, you _do_ win _something_—a second chapter! And here it is!

Fiona Summoner- I'm really glad you enjoyed reading the first chapter, and now you _can _read more! But man, I sure haven't heard from you for a while, huh?

Cathleen- Gracias, amigo.

Auron's Fan- Lenne is in a wedding dress because . . . I don't know, use your imagination! (crosses arms)

EPearlFairy- I _did _finish the book! In time. And oh, thanks for the complement about Reina and Darian—I really appreciated that.

Sum1special- (uses Al Bhed translator) You like this story? Thanks! I'm glad you think it's really interesting, and yes, you can read more now because I'm _updating_! D

Ramya- Yeah.

White-emerald-kitsume-hime- Y'ello! That's alright. I hope you read this update, though. I have a feeling that no one will read this . . . . (face drops)

Super hyper anti chibi rikku- Sorry, but from now on, I'm referring to you as "Tidus Luver," because your new pen name is just damn long. Hope you don't mind?

Slamlam- Awesome pen name! And don't worry, I'll keep writing as long as I keep getting reviews.

Nyviay and Cyraxis- Long reviews rock! No, I'm not really an alien thing that attacks everyone, so don't you worry yourself about that. Oh, but the poem at the end of the last chapter didn't belong to me. Nope, nope, nope. It belonged to Square. Yup, yup, yup. And you know, I haven't heard from you for a looong time, you know? You don't update, review, email . . . well, hopefully, you'll at least review this.

Lea- Thanks thanks thanks.

Disclaimer- I don't own any of these non-OC characters — Square does. So don't bother suing me, because I have no money to start of with.

Where We Left Off- And now, back to the fic. Now let's see . . . last time, we left off at the concert, and Lenne's song was suddenly interrupted by some woman who was warning everyone about some kind of . . . attack? I wonder what's going on?

(IMPORTANT NOTE: This chapter starts off about five minutes after the last chapter, so don't be confused. And also, there are a lot of scene switches in this chapter, because there are a lot of conflicts that go on. But don't worry; they all meet up towards the end.)

Oh, and also….

Chapter 2: A Summoner's Destruction

---

_"ATTACK!"_

_- - -_

"What's going on?" Lenne pointed a quivering finger toward the outside exit. "What's happening?"

Silence.

"Darian! Answer me!" she cried.

She was ignored.

"Where _is _everybody?"

Darian shook his head stiffly, holding a finger up to his mouth. "Shhh!"

"Are you crazy?" she screamed. "If we don't do something, our city could be destroyed! What if the Bevellians are here?"

"No. They aren't," Darian insisted quietly, still holding his pointer finger to his mouth, which was obviously signaling for the older teenager to mute herself.

"And how do you know that?"

At first, the 17-year-old didn't respond with anything, but then, he lowered his finger and whispered, "Listen."

The sound of the ground trembling, the sound of people screaming . . . what, Lenne wondered, else was there to hear? The Young woman. couldn't figure it out. Something terrible was going on outside, and she had to do something to help. The concert had been interrupted, and it was obvious that there wasn't going to be a rain-check any time soon. Nobody was in the audience any longer — they were all outside, trying to figure out what all the ruckus was about.

She laughed sarcastically. "Yeah, Darian, I'm listening, and I still here the sound of the people screaming. What are you talking about?"

"No, listen closer."

At first, Lenne didn't hear anything new. But then the screams grew louder, almost deafening. She could barely make out what they were saying.

"SIN!_ SIN!_"

"Sin?" she asked Darian, almost as loud as the people from outside.

"It must be."

"Sin was defeated a decade ago, by Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon! How could it be back?"

"I'm not sure," he responded gravely. "But it is back, and we don't have time to mull over it. You ready?"

Lenne nodded. "Of course." He was right; there wasn't time. Throwing a quick glance to her right, the young woman spotted an outside exit and ran over to it. Darian followed.

The screams grew louder and louder the closer they came, but they were ignored as Lenne stepped ahead of her younger comrade to shove the door open. She placed her hands on the metal bar and utilized her strength to force the bar to move forward. It stayed put.

Lenne frowned. "Oh my god… It's not opening.."

"Never leave a woman to do a man's job," Darian muttered below his breath, dodging a rightful slap. "Watch this," he said, placing a firm hand onto the bar. A few seconds later, he found himself banging violently on it.

Peeking over Darian's shoulder, Lenne eyes bulged. "Don't tell me…" she whispered fearfully.

Darian hesitated, and then stammered, "It…it's locked."

"Oh my God…"

---

_"Where the hell are Lenne and Darian!"_ Reina shouted to no one in particular. She didn't even bother saying "Lennie", which was something new indeed.

She was practically going insane, pulling her golden-colored hair out, searching for her dear friends. Didn't they know _it_ was coming? No amount of magic could save them from the beast that was edging closer and closer to their town, and Reina was useless by herself.

And what was worse was that she knew that no manmade machine could defeat Sin, no matter how powerful or deadly it may be. Obviously, no one _else_ knew that, considering the overwhelming number of people who were aiming their guns and canons.

Spotting a group of men a little bit ahead of her, the young teen shook the blonde-colored hair out of her face and scurried over. "Excuse me?" she said as politely and calmly as humanly possible.

One of them turned around and scowled. "What is it, little girl? Can't you see we're preparing these canons to fight off Sin?" He furrowed his brow, wondering what she could've wanted from him, but then realized she was probably only twelve or thirteen years old anyway (although she was well over seventeen). What else, other than Barbie dolls, makeup sessions, and pedicures, could a twelve or thirteen-year-old want? "There's no time for any girly makeup suggestions," he snapped, before Reina could say a thing.

Bastard. Reina didn't have time to mess with these people. _Just let them die, _she thought bitterly. But before the young woman could look for another group of people to ask for help, a short woman with short, puffy hair came running to her, her body shaking.

"I've lost my son," she pleaded. "I'm sorry, but have you seen a short, skinny boy in a dark green shirt anywhere near by?"

Reina shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. But I was also looking for someone, named Lenne? And I was hoping you could help me —"

But the woman had already took off running, her wig falling off.

Another group of people, this time, three young boys probably around the ages of twelve, stood talking leisurely up the street. Reina had no clue whether they were aware of what was going on or not, but decided she didn't have the time to ponder it. She threw herself towards them.

"Excuse me!" she shouted to get their attention. All three turned around. "I've lost two of my friends. I really need some help. Do you think any of you could help me find them?"

"Why us?" the fattest one snorted. "We were _talking_, lady."

"I know, but you don't understand, I —"

"EH!" interrupted the tallest. "He _said _we were _talking_! Now, buzz off—"

She grabbed the boy by the collar, fire burning in her eyes. "_LOOK,_" she said sharply. "Are you going to help or not?"

The boy screamed and wriggled free of her grasp, running away. The two remaining boys were right behind her.

Reina clenched her fists. The next person she saw, she would _force _to help her.

_----_

"You two have to hide! Sin is coming."

"But Sir, where do we go? Our home is in Besaid!"

The blonde 19-year-old quickly ushered the couple into a nearby alleyway. "Just please wait right here and _don't_ move."

The couple cupped their hands together and bowed, showing their civil gratitude.

Noticing another small group of bystanders, the blonde teen hastily ran over to them, shaking sweat from his face. "You can't stay here," he warned.

"We know, but we don't have anywhere nearby to flee to. Can you help us?"

"Yes. Please, just follow that couple over there, into the alleyway. We're trying to clear everyone from this site."

"Are you sure we'll be safe? Sin will leave us alone?"

"Yes. Trust me."

With that, the group sprinted down the path. Shuyin didn't want any innocent citizens to be injured or killed in the upcoming attack, although he knew it was _going_ to happen anyway. All he could do was his best to prevent the massave loss of inhabitants of the city. And hell, if that wasn't good enough, he could mourn over it later.

A blonde-haired young woman, probably a few years younger than him, came jogging over to him, panting heavily.

"My friends are lost. Can you help me?" Reina asked him.

_-------_

Lenne shook her head. "This is just great," she said bitterly. "I'm going to look for another exit."

Darian sent a sweaty hand through his hair. "Okay, I'll wait here. Stay alert if something happens."

Lenne nodded and ran around the corner, into another hallway.

The past half hour had seemed to zoom by. There she was, in the middle of a concert, when — BAM! Interrupted by an attack. And then, suddenly, everyone in the audience had left, leaving the backstage crew alone. Somehow, everyone else but her and Darian had managed to escape to see what was going on. It didn't make sense. _How could everyone except for two people have left the stadium? _She left the thought unanswered.

Now closer to the door, Lenne stopped walking altogether. _That's odd, _she thought. In all of the times that she'd been in this stadium, she had never noticed that door before. And . . . why was that glyph glowing on the front of it? And, exactly _where _was the doorknob?

What the hell kind of door was this?

Lenne placed her closed fist on the door and banged on it ferociously. "_Hello_?" she screamed.

No one answered.

"_Hello!_"

Surprisingly, the door slid open, almost just like an elevator. Lenne shivered, then cautiously, but with growing confidence, stepped inside.

Inside the room was nothing but stone walls with glowing symbols etched across them, each one of them lighting up one at a time until the entire area was filled with a green brilliance. She gaped and stood motionlessly.

The door shut behind her.

"Darian, that's not funny!" Lenne whirled around, expecting to see her younger friend rolling on the floor, pointing and laughing at her. But all she saw was a closed stone entry, and more glowing symbols. Still facing the blocked entrance, the 19-year-old young woman suddenly heard the faint sound of a hymn playing from behind her. Almost instantly, she listened without turning around.

There was silence for a moment.

Lenne spoke up. "Who's there?"

Another moment of silence made its way about the room. However, this time, it was followed by a voice. "I."

Lenne twirled around, seeing a tall, slim woman standing in front of her. She was dressed in a long, white robe, stretching down to her knees, with light brown shoulder-length hair. Her face pale and white, she looked the young woman in the eye as she spoke.

"Art thou the chosen? Art thou the one destined to end Spira's devastation?" The woman began circling around Lenne, as if looking her over. "Or hast thou intruded?"

Lenne said nothing. She only glared at the being in total disbelief.

"Who art thou?"

"Um . . . hi? I'm Lenne," she stammered.

The woman came to a stop. She looked Lenne up and down and finally nodded. "Why hast thou cometh? Thou art no summoner, nor guardian!"

"Excuse me" the befuddled young woman snapped, half angry, half confused, "but this isn't a temple. It is a stadium."

The being shook its head. "No, it _is_ a temple. But Spirans have altered its use. Years ago, this place was a place for summoners and loyal guardians to come to gain the Final Aeon in order to defeat Sin. Now, it's use has been changed, but it's purpose still remains."

"Purpose?" Lenne brushed her hair out of her face, revealing a tired and confused young woman. "What are you _talking_ about? Who are you?" She thought for a moment, realizing what this _Fayth_, or whatever it was, was trying to explain. This was a temple?

"What are you trying to say?" She repeated, lowering her voice. "This isn't a stadium?"

"No indeed," was the strange being's reply. Lenne thought she glimpsed a smile edge across her face when she added, "For reference, I am the original fayth of this place. Call me Valefor."

_What the hell?_

"Then…"

"But you, Lenne, can change it back, and in the process, defeat Sin."

_Sin? _

"You said 'Sin,'" Lenne remarked. "So...does that mean--"

"That's right Summoner." The female Fayth nodded. "Sin is back."

The being looked her in the eye. "Did you think the Calm would last forever?"

Lenne gaped at her. "Oh my God..." She shook her head vigorously, backing away. "No! No, it can't be!"

"It is."

"What?" the girl screamed, her eyes widening. "But…. but I can't do anything! I'm no summoner!" she stuttered. "I'm just —"

"Thou hast none of the proper preparation, no." The Aeon nodded. "But with the help of thy guardians and Aeons, thou shalt succeed."

From where she stood, she could hear pounding on the door. "_Lenne! LENNE!_" a blaring voice screamed from outside of the room. "_Are you in there?_"

"My friends are out there. They'll die!" she said hurriedly. "Have you forgotten about Sin!"

"I shall aid thee in thy battle against the Sinspawn." The female fayth moved closer toward her. "Do not fret."

_Wait._

Lenne blinked. "It's not truly Sin?"

"No. Only a spawn. And a fully grown one, at that." The fayth nodded. "But, you do realize," she began, "that if there is a sinspawn here in Zanarkand, it means that Sin isn't too far away. So yes, Sin is back, summoner."

Lenne blinked again, but otherwise didn't respond.

"Why so silent?" the Fayth asked quitely."Doth thou not believe my words?"

She forced a weak, sad smile upon her lips. "I believe you now, more than I did before."

"_LENNE!_" a voice shouted again from beyond the door.

_Hurry it up! s_he thought hurriedly to herself. "Am I really destined to do this?" she whispered, looking dead at the fayth in front of her. Her face was grave.

"Yes. Now, go help the city fend against Sin. You won't defeat him now," it said genuinely, "but thou shall journey. And by the end, thou will be ready, Summoner. I will aid thee and become thy first aeon, Valefor. Now go. And take this staff." It held out a white rod, one that seemingly came from thin air.

Nevertheless, Lenne smiled and nodded, grabbing the long rod in the Aeon's hands. Just before she could leave the room, the fayth faded away, and the glyphs seemed to fade as well.

She ran towards the door, and before it opened, the Summoner turned around and cupped her hands together, bowing. It was the first time she had done the Yevonite bow, and seemed a bit ironic, as well.

Before, it always seemed so childish, so weak. But things were different now, somehow. She felt a surge of power flow through her body as the door slid open, revealing a relieved Darian.

"Yevon, so you _are _alive," he panted. "Come on! Reina and some guy—Shuyin or something—managed to open the door for us. They said to meet them outside."

"Okay, let's go."

The two ran to the exit, but when the group of four finally stood together, gawking at the creature thrashing about, Darian's relieved expression faltered. He stared at the fiend in horror. "What the hell is _that_?" he shouted, fixing his eyes directly upon its tough scales.

"I thought you said you _knew_ it was _Sin_," Lenne said sourly, shooting him a disgusted look.

"I—"

She blinked and shook her head. "It's alright, Dar. It's only a spawn."

Desipte the situation, Reina smiled. "Good! Then maybe we have a chance, right!"

Shuyin, the one who had Reina helped free Darian and Lenne earlier on, coolly slid a hand through his hair. "All of you, do shut up."

Although the Sinspawn wasn't as much of a threat as it originally might've been if it were the true Sin, there was something about it that made it seem… _frightening._ The four teenagers — Lenne, Darian, Shuyin, and Reina — all watched the Sinspawn as it pounded it's enormous, sea green fins upon the ground.

It was definitely not quite a fish, not quite a bird, nor mammal, reptile, or amphibian. The Sinspawn seemed to have firm scales shielding it's skin, and had enormous, flat feet, probably capable of smashing a single structure to pieces. Its arms — all six of them — extended far out across the afternoon sky. And the head was the largest part of its body.

The creature roared thunderously.

"Er…" Darian scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Whose idea was it to come out here, again?"

The deafening cry of the creature pierced through everyone's ears as it stepped within the city limits. Now that it was here, no one held back.

"FIRE!"

Canons launched from the ground, missiles soared, and bow and arrows flew swiftly into the sky.

Everyone had to cover their ears to avoid going deaf, as the thunderous, offensive weapons shot through the air. Unfortunately, the sinspawn only continued its wild thrashing and, by a few meters, only barely dodged the oncoming attacks. The flying weapons arched downward again and landed on the city.

Lenne screamed and turned away. She clenched her fists and tightly closed her eyes.

_Stop them. Do something!_

"Urgh…. I can't…" Lenne thought aloud to herself, shaking her fists. She opened her eyes briefly, only to see the horrid vision of innocent people lying lifeless on the cold, harsh ground. Women screamed, clutching their babies close to their chests for protection, while the men continued firing their weapons.

Darian spotted a shimmering sword lying on the ground. Running over, he quickly picked it up. "Let's see what this thing can do," he murmured, swinging himself into a stance.

The 17-year-old ran toward the fiend ahead of him, screaming and clutching the sword with his right hand. Shuyin was right behind him wielding his own sword. The two aimed for the monster's feet, slashing its skin with all possible effort.

Reina watched. "Lenne?" she said doubtfully."You think they'll be okay?"The girl raised her eyebrows, looking at Lenne directly in the eye.

"I….I don't know…."

She watched the two boys struggling with the fight, and the other citizens screaming. "We've gotta help them," Reina said anxiously.

Lenne was having an internal fight with herself to do something. She couldn't respond to anything Reina said.

"Lennie? Well, I'm going," the girl stated. "I know _some_ black magic. And hopefully, you'll do _something_."

The girl ran to the left some, glaring up at the suddenly dark sky. Lenne watched with interest as a vivid ring of blazing inferno circled her body. Suddenly, the ground under the Sinspawn ripped open, shoving out a burst of flames. The fiend only cringed.

_Do something! _she repeated to herself. _Go! Fight!_

But she couldn't. She had no weapons, no fighting skills. What was she supposed to do?

What about the Fayth? The Aeon?

**Lenne, call me**, said a voice from inside of her. **Call for the Aeon! Call me, summoner!**

_Do what?_

**Call me! **the voice demanded. **Call for Valefor.**

Lenne tried. She pulled out her staff, twirling it below her waist.

If the Fayth had been telling the truth when she was in that room, then she was really a Summoner, right? And if she was a Summoner, she could call upon an Aeon, right?

**Try.**

Lenne closed her eyes. The only thing she could see in her mind was a faint image of an Aeon, soaring through the sky. An Aeon with red feathers covering its neck, a long bright beak, and a long, violet tail hanging from its end beat its wings anxiously.

Her eyelids snapped open. "Valefor, come!"

The image became real. The aerial aeon flew up beside her, flapping it's massive wings.

Reina could only glare. "_Lennie!_ What are you?"

Previously screaming people walked up to her, bowing. "Summoner?" one of them asked.

Another came up from behind him. "Oh, thanks be to Yevon, for sending us a Summoner to defeat Sin once more!"

Others followed. "Hear, hear!"

_Dear Yevon…._Lenne shook her head and concentrated on the Sinspawn.

She pointed a shaky finger towards the monster. _"Valefor, attack!"_

The aerial aeon nodded its pointy head, taking off to the high sky. Flipping and turning, the Aeon opened its beak wide, letting out a white beam of forceful energy into the stiff air.

Darian and Shuyin took a few steps back as the target stumbled backward, let out a screeching death cry, and burst into a cloud of pyreflies, drifting up into the heavens, and then fading away slowly.

No sound occurred for a few seconds. Just awkward silence.

Then, Darian's eyes widened, staring directly at the Aeon in the sky, and then at Lenne. "_You_ did that?" he asked, in a state of complete shock and confusion.

A sheepish grin made its way across her face. "Pass?"


	3. Path to Kilika

Author's Notes

Thank you so very much, for all of those who reviewed the last chapter (and/or the first). This includes Noelle and Chloe, summonershion3, Aesclepius (hello!), Rayne-Shadow Goddess, Kalis J. Ravel, and…oh, that's all of them. But I really appreciate your encouraging reviews, and without them, you would not be seeing an update right now.

To respond to Noelle and Chloe's question, _I can't tell you that! _Not yet at least. Keep on reading and reviewing to find out, though! Oh, summonershion3, now you _can _find out what happens to Lenne and company! I'm really glad you're interested, and I can't wait to hear from you again. To Rayne-Shadow Goddess, lol and it's okay. Don't worry, my computer has three viruses…

(Or at least, that is what Norton Anti-Virus tells me… although it is too damn useless to _delete _the viruses. Oh no, of course not! Instead, the damn thing just tells me whenever I have a virus, and then it doesn't do a damn thing about it. And you know what? I would much rather _not_ know if I had a virus, then to _know_ and _not_ be able to do anything about it. Wouldn't you?)

And Kalis J. Ravel (cool name), thanks for all of the complements. And I just now realized that maybe you are right about the Shuyin thing. But you see, the reason why I said he was a blitzer was because at the end of FFX-2, when you have to fight him, he has quite a few blitzball attacks. So yeah. But by the end of this fic, you'll see the piano side of him as well, so until then, please don't abandon me here with all of these freaks! (glares at reviewers) Nah, kidding.

Where we left off- Damn. Well, how are you all doing? Good? Bad? Uh, well, yeah. This is Darian, if you didn't know. Well, if I remember correctly, in the last chapter, we defeated off Sin — or as Lenne says, "Sin _spawn._" Yeah, but wait. Remember that huge flying thing she "summoned"? What _was _that? A pokémon? Hehe, that would be funny. But if it was what I _really_ think it was, wouldn't that mean that Lenne is a….

Chapter Three- Path to Kilika

* * *

_->->-_

Reina looked up and shrieked, giving the Aeon flying above her a frightened expression. Her two index fingers formed a small X as she backed away slowly. "Le... Lennie?" she stumbled. "What is this?"

"What is what? Oh, Valefor?" She smiled timidly. "Oh, this is my—"

"Your _what_?" Darian interrupted sarcastically, hiding from around the corner. _"Pokémon?"_

Everyone glanced around, wondering where the noise had come from. Lenne, however, saw him immediately. "Darian? Is that you?" She pulled him forward. "_Get_ over here!"

The people gathering around the new summoner all seemed to wear the same beffuddled expression as Reina. Lenne, able to sense their puzzled nature, immediately understood why they were all so confused about what had happened. There were only a few of them gathered around her, as most of the people in the city were too afraid to come out of their hiding, or were grieving over the loss of their family members and friends.

Trying to deal with Darian and answer Reina's questions at the same time, Lenne stumbled, "I….I um..It's called Valefor… It's—my…" She was finally able to get Darian back onto his feet.

Reina raised her eyebrows, still backing away from the Aeon. Lenne straightened and cleared her voice, highly preparing for what was to come next. "This," she said slowly, "Valefor, is my…." She was interrupted yet again.

From behind, a man in a extensive, colorless robe cut through the conversation, bowing. A significantly large crowd of thankful survivors approached, following, and bobbing their heads above those who had already began viewing the scene.

The priest overlooked the summoner and, satisfied, beamed like the world had been saved. "Oh, thanks be to Yevon!" the priest breathed, still examining Lenne's body as if she were a mannequin. "Yevon has brought us a Summoner to conquer Sin!"

"And just in time, too!" someone else added.

"Hear, hear!"

The crowd surrounding the group began to cheer and clap cheerfully, all the while bowing to the young woman. She could only stand there, unmoving, and forcing a crooked grin onto her face, waving slightly.

"Looks like _someone _has a whole new fangroup, eh?" Darian whispered to Reina, who nodded agreeably, as the crowd drew closer to jab their fingers into the new summoner's skin, almost as if to make sure she were real.

Lenne glanced past the crowd and shook herself free of everyone's pokes and prods. There was nothing, Lenne thought, to celebrate. There was nothing to thank Yevon for, nothing to smile about, and nothing to pray for. So why did everyone seem so happy?

The attack had taken lives of many guiltless occupants of the city, and Lenne had proof. What more proof could one need other than the sight of hundreds of motionless corpses lying immobile on the cold, hard ground? What about the sight of all of the citizens still on the ground, grieving over their lost ones? Or the sight of the many people still hiding uneasily out in the alleyway?

Whether or not she had stopped the fiend from completely destroying the entire town or not, she was still too late. The new summoner felt as if the battle had been all for nothing, and her heart sank.

"Alright!" came the strong voice of a blond male, "that's enough!" He shooed as many of the gaping, cheering citizens away from the summoneras possible before letting out a long, tired breath and sheathing his sword. He turned to Lenne; she immediately saw his face grave with concern.

Shuyin's low tone echoed through her ears, although he only spoke in barely a whisper. "Is there something you mean to tell us, Lenne?" he asked. "I've only just now met you, and... You still seem different, still. What…just happened?"

"It's a long story actually," she began tiredly. "But I guess to start off, I've become a Summoner. And that," she continued, pointing at the aerial aeon beatings its wings high in the air, "is Valefor. It's my Aeon."

"Lenne, seriously!" Reina insisted, not believing her words. "What haven't you told us? Are you, like, some kind of mystical being?"

Darian furrowed his brow suspiciously. "…What happened in that room in the stadium?" No one but him and Lenne understood what he was speaking of, as they gave him ignorant looks.

Lenne nodded towards the priest. She then turned her head back towards her friends and said, "The priest was right. Valefor is my Aeon, I am Summoner Lenne now."

"_You're WHAT?_" everyone shouted in unison. Lenne smiled and nodded, repeating her words. For a while, those who had known her previously only stood silent, but a growing crowd was thriving once more around Lenne, and she suddenly felt claustrophobic.

"I _said_ back _off!_" demanded a furious Shuyin, throwing them the harshest look of irritation he could. For the most part, he was successful in scaring them off and leaving the group to silence. Only the priest remained.

He looked at the others. "Has the light been found? Have we come across the slightest bit of hope?" he said aloud, speaking to no one in particular. "Zanarkand has prevailed in the attack against Sin's spawn. There has been a great loss, but Zanarkand shall gain back what has been destroyed." He nodded. "We shall hold a special ceremony for those who have passed on, and will rejoice in the morning! Do you all plan to come?"

The elderly man was not answered.

"I knew you would!" he exclaimed. His face, however, suddenly turned very stern. "But hear me out, young warriors. Sin will continue to attack throughout Spira, and you must destroy it before our world becomes a land of dust and pebble. You, guardians and summoner, must journey throughout Spira to gather the first Aeons. Along the way, you will learn much and grow to know much, but only after gaining the other two aeons will you be able to come back here and obtain the Final. Yunalesca has moved from here, and now she travels throughout Spira. Find her to help you with your journey. We've set a boat for you all to board just outside of the city limits that will take you to Kilika," he continued. "The Ronso pilot should be waiting for you tomorrow, but please make sure you stay for the ceremony. The fate of Spira is upon you now, and no one else."

The last sentence of his words were spoken much firmer than the rest, and they echoed throughout the city. The four had been listening intently since the man began his speech. Reina, Darian, Shuyin, and Lenne all nodded and bowed politely toward the priest, who hobbled off.

They stood in the calm for a while, and only the light voice of the wind was heard. A broad smile edged its way across Shuyin's face. "Looks we're the only ones who have the potential to defeat the monster. We should probably get some rest tonight to get ready for the ceremony that begins tomorrow."

"He's probably right," Reina agreed, allowing an equally large grin on her face. "It's really getting a bit late anyway." She looked up at the stars in the sky and folded her arms close to her chest, giving herself warmth among the now bitter wind that burst across her face. "We'll all meet at the ceremony tomorrow," she said.

_->->-_

Lenne hastened into her home, shutting the door behind her and glancing around.

She walked down the narrow hallway that lead to the kitchen and screamed when she entered an area with paneless windows, crushed furniture, and a wall that had been ripped off, separate from the rest of the house.

The shocked, frightened young woman yelped as she reached for a chair and it collapsed. She ran through the house frantically, looking desperately for her father, but he was nowhere to be found.

Once she had ended up back in the kitchen, Lenne looked out into the glassless window that stood before her and was reminded of the disaster that Sin had caused. Half of her home had fallen, and as she thought harder, she realized just what happened to her father— the _Sinspawn_ happened.

Rath had been slain.

That night, when the young woman crawled, wet with tears, into her cold bed, she could only stare at the ceiling, thinking about everything that had occurred to her. The fans, the song, the Aeon, the sinspawn.

She didn't sleep an ounce on the bed that had been so soaked with her tears. She wanted to leave Zanarkand and begin her pilgrimage as soon as possible. Lenne didn't think she could stand another day in the city, and at the first glimpse of sunrise, she found herself sprinting out of the house, slamming the door, and knocking on each and every door of her guardians' homes.

_->->-_

"Tell me again, why are we leaving like this?" Darian yawned, once the group had finally left the city and were departing for the boat.

"Darian, we went over this already," Lenne replied tirelessly, folding her hair behind her ears.

"I know, but…so early? Without so much as a goodbye? Did you forget about the ceremony?"

Shuyin shrugged. "He's got a point. We probably shoudn't have done this. Especially not after the way the city's relying on us so heavily. They probably think we've been slain or something."

"No, not after we've already defeated one of Sin's more powerful spawns. You don't start something only to be killed before you set out," Reina declared, optimistic as usual.

"Yeah, well, all I know is we'd better have some food on this boat," Darian groaned, choosing not to worry any longer about the people of Zanarkand. "I'm so hungry I could eat a chocobo."

Lenne laughed heartily and said, "Sure you can, Dar."

The group continued walking to the edge of the area, where the land met sea, and where the ship was waiting for them. The priest had been kind enough to provide an outsized, but useful, means of transportation to help Lenne and the new guardians arrive at Kilika sooner. Apparently, he had sent a trained Ronso to pilot them in the right direction, so that they would not "get lost," as he told her. Prior to telling them this information, the elderly man had handed Darian a torn map of Spira, supposedly to help them find their way back to Zanarkand if something severe happened. What that was supposed to mean, Lenne hadn't a clue.

"You must gather your Aeons, young summoner," the priest had stated. "Only then will you be ready for the Final."

_The Final? _she'd asked herself in return. _What sense does that make?_

_He was probably talking about the Final Aeon_, she now concluded.

Still, Lenne had nodded and smiled, as if she understood. Only _now _did she wonder if she was _really_ ready for such a commitment. But it was too late _now_, wasn't it?

_"Um, sorry, but I've changed my mind. I don't wanna be a summoner anymore. So here is your staff back, your Aeon back, and YOUR pilgrimage back. Thank you and have a nice day."_

It would seem a bit weird saying something like that to someone, wouldn't it?

So, for all of these reasons and more, Lenne accepted this and moved on, into the boat.

The boat was unrealistically massive in size, taking up the space of at least twenty king-sized cots, if not more. The weird thing was that it was a _private_ ride, meaning no one else but Reina, Darian, Lenne, Shuyin, and whoever this Ronso pilot was, was on it. Such a large area for just five people seemed a bit…unusual. Still, no one said a word about it.

Wide in the rear, and narrow toward its front, the ship somewhat resembled the shape of a face-down triangular prism. Twenty to thirty windows were on each side of the oversized boat, looking like a miniature version of the Titanic, although its entire cover had been tinted with nothing but black paint.

Lenne sat quietly among her three guardians, tapping her fingers against the seat impatiently.

"So, m'lady, when we get to Kilika, what's the first thing we're going to do?" Darian finally asked, breaking the daunting silence.

She looked up, holding her fingers still. "I guess we should probably get settled first…"

"…And then move on to get the Aeon," Shuyin finished for her, grinning. "That way, we can get through this as soon as possible. Right?"

She beamed. "Right!"

However, unspoken, lingering in the back of their minds, everyone knew that things wouldn't go by that quickly.

Looking out the window, the young woman watched the seagulls float by, moving past the glistening seawater. Every seagull that flew by meant she was one more second farther away from home.

_Why do I have to leave my hometown, anyway?_

"Because…. " She quietly answered herself out loud. "This is my pilgrimage. And I have to defeat Sin immediately, before he destroys anything more than he already has."

"Yeaahhh…" Shuyin replied slowly, as if he were the one being spoken to, "but I _still_ don't think she should have sneaked off like that."

"We didn't sneak off," Reina suddenly declared, yawning, after sleeping in her seat for the past hour. "Don't you remember when the priest _told _us to begin the pilgrimage today?"

"Well, yeah….but he didn't tell us to go at the first glimpse of sunlight, did he?"

"Not exactly..."

"Just like I said," Shuyin stated with a smile, shaking his head and folded his arms onto his chest. "So, _m'lady_," he joked, laughing, "why did you choose _us _to be your guardians?"

Lenne began to open her mouth to respond, but was immediately cut off short by an impracticable remark from Darian.

The younger teenager put on a ridiculous, high voice, trying to sound like Lenne was the one answering, and not him. "Because my name is Lenne Stenning, and I plan to be the ultimate pokémon master when I grow up." He rubbed the pain in back of his head a few seconds later.

She smirked satisfyingly and withdrew her hand. "_First _of all, Darian," she began, shooting him a glare, "how many times must I _tell_ you? I'm a _Summoner_!"

He sent a hand through his hair and grinned, "I'm _sure_."

"And _second_," Lenne continued, ignoring the sarcastic remark, "I had a reason for choosing you as my guardians. Wouldn't I have to have one?"

"Not really. I mean, you _could _always just grab three random people off the street and force them to be your guardians," suggested Darian with a smile still implanted on his face.

The blonde blitzer raised his eyebrows. "You know, only_ you_ would think of that."

The 19-year-old waited for Darian and Shuyin to mute themselves, which, indeed, took a good twenty seconds of waiting. "Well, like I was saying before _someone_ interrupted me," she said, avoiding a smile, "I think chose you to be my guardians because I thought that…you'll all help me in the pilgrimage. Somehow."

"…You _thought_?" Darian muttered to himself, not loud enough for anyone else to hear.

"Well. A great help, huh?" Shuyin concluded, watching Lenne nod in reply. "Well, where's our first stop, Lady Summoner? Forget whatthe priest said."

"Well, she can't defeat Sin with just one Aeon, right?" Reina asked, after not having spoken hardly at all since the companions had entered the ship, for she was half asleep.

Shuyin blinked. "Nope."

"Well then, it looks like we're headed to Kilika. The priest was right."

Lenne nodded. "Right. Darian, I need the map to give to the pilot."

Darian stood up and looked under his seat. A confused expression made its way across his face as he dug into his pockets to make sure he hadn't stuffed them away in there. Finally, he faced Lenne again. "I…don't have it," he said honestly, shrugging.

Lenne stood up and looked under her own seat as well. She bent over, searching the boat's bottom for the torn paper that was supposed to lead them to the Kilikan residents. She didn't see it. "What the hell? I don't either!" she said. "Rei?"

Reina shook her head slightly. "Don't look at me."

Shuyin lightly tapped his fingers against the wood of the small boat. "I thought _Darian _here was supposed to have had the map. The priest _gave _it to _him_, didn't he?"

"Oh! So _that's_ what that was?" Darian's cheeks went red in color. "Um…"

"Well?" Shuyin asked him. "What did you do with it?"

"Where is it _now_?" Lenne added, her eyes widening.

"In the ocean…"

"WHAT?"

"_WHY is it in the ocean, Darian_!" Shuyin cried.

"I threw it there."

"_Why!_"

"I thought it was trash!" he replied.

"Oh, dear…" Reina murmured quietly.

_->->-_

Lenne quickly brushed past the trio of guardians, standing next to the entrance to the piloting room. She swallowed.

"Hello?" She shouted, knocking on the door. There was no reply for a moment. Then….

"Come in."

Lenne opened the door, to reveal a complicated room with multiple colored buttons and knobs, all leading toward the central wheel, which a large, blue-skinned man was manipulating in order to maneuver the ship. She had no idea why any ship would need such machina in it, but she guessed it was just for extra support. And then, the thought came.

_Why would a Yevonite priest send a machina-filled ship to take me to Kilika?_

It didn't make sense. Yevon did not approve of machina, and followers of Yevon weren't supposed to use them, either.

_Strange._

"What does Summoner wish to ask Ronso?" the pilot questioned without even doing so much as throwing her a glance; his eyes remained out on the sea. "Ronso name Rauke." He reached out a hand.

Lenne didn't move, wanting to get to the point. "Um, hi, Rauke." She smiled, although the Ronso could not see it. "Well, I just came here to tell you that we can't the find the map the priest wanted us to give you."

The man, probably no older than 27 or so, took his hands off of the wheel. He looked Lenne in the eye for the first time. "Summoner not find map, then Ronso not pilot. Not pilot without map," he simply stated.

"What! You can't just take us to the nearest town?" Lenne asked, her patience ebbing. "You've been fine without the map until now!"

"Yes, but Ronso not able to go from here. Too complicated in spot."

Lenne's eyes followed the path the ship was heading for. They suddenly bulged.

"_The road!_" she screamed.

Rauke immediately twirled around, knowing what she'd meant. By his not paying attention to the path of the boat, it had bore to left, heading into the shallow water area, where it could've very well gotten stuck. He swerved just in time, forcing Lenne and the rest of the people on the boat to jerk sideways.

From outside the room, where her guardians still sat, she heard a scream.

Lenne scrambled into the room, ignoring the Ronso for the moment, and looking a Reina. "What _happened_?" she shouted. Reina, in turn, pointed at the young blonde man who was out on the deck, hanging onto the side of the boat for dear life. _"SHUYIN!"_


	4. Who Needs Ronsos?

Author's Notes- I'm really sorry for taking so long to type this up, but I've been really rather busy. My updates for all of my fanfictions have been coming along really, really, really, really slowly now, and it's not really fair to any of you, I know. Sorry for any disappointments on that…

The muses are now forcing me to update these things a lot more frequently, so hopefully you'll be seeing another chapter soon. In other news, The FanFiction People have stopped allowing us to respond to the reviews in the story, and now they've given us this crappy little box to type in for every review response instead.

**-.-**;;

So, since I don't want my stories to be taken off the internet or anything, I think I'll just abide by their rules and use the little box thing to respond to all of your reviews from now on. You're supposed to get an email every time you get a response, so just…check your emails every now and then, if you review.

There's action in the beginning of the chapter, and then things go a bit more slowly from there. And there's a surprise cliff ending for this chapter…. Just keep in mind that this is _my_ fanfiction—which means that I'm telling Lenne's pilgrimage the way I think it would be best. Therefore, there may be some things in this story that seem very unlikely to happen—and some of them might not make sense until later.

Make sure to keep that in mind from now on—and especially at the end of this chapter.

Where We Left Off- Um, yeah. I'm Rianna – another personal muse of Shadray's. He's kind of…busy…at the moment, so I'm doing this thing for him. Um…well, at the end of the last chapter, Shuyin was falling off the side of the ship, the Ronso, Rauke, was refusing to pilot it, and overall, it looks to me like this pilgrimage isn't going so well. I wonder if everyone will be okay?

Shuyin: We _better_ be. (glares at Shadray)

Rianna: Hey! Don't interrupt!

Shuyin: Oh, sorry.

Where We Left Off (Continued)- Ahem. Like I was saying: I wonder if everyone will be okay?

Chapter Four- Who Needs Ronsos?

_

* * *

_

Lenne turned back toward Reina, fear in her eyes. From what she could see, Reina was wearing the same expression on her face. "How did this happen?" she asked loudly.

Reina shook her head, shrugging. "I don't know! The ship jerked sideways, I blinked, and when I opened my eyes again…." Her voice trailed off for a moment and her eyes darted over to the deck of the ship as she continued the sentence. "…he was holding on to the edge, about to fall off." She, of course, was speaking of Shuyin.

With no further dialogue, the two scrambled out onto the deck, hearts pounding. Seeing Darian already aiding Shuyin Lenne reassured herself that he would be fine.

Darian was on the side, barking at Shuyin like mad to grab his hand, which he had thrust out to help pull the blonde back onto the surface of the ship. Roaring, Darian attempted to haul the blonde with all possible effort, and for a while, it seemed to be working. Bit by bit, the rest of Shuyin's body became slightly visible for Lenne to see, and bit by bit, her comfort grew. But it seemed wrong for her and Reina to stand and watch the boys struggle when they themselves could assist. The two exchanged worried looks and scrambled over to help. They both grabbed Shuyin's arm, and, assisting Darian, pulled as hard as possible.

The next few moments were nothing but a blur to Reina, Lenne, Shuyin, and Darian. There they were, trying to help pull a friend back onto the ship's deck with all possible effort. There they were, shouting and screaming for Shuyin to grab their hands. There they were, worried that something terribly wrong would happen to him. And there they were, completely ignoring the fact that Rauke was no longer piloting the ship, but was now out on the deck, trying to stop the strange blonde boy from falling into the sea's depths.

"PULL!"

They pulled all at once—the Ronso as well. No one seemed to notice he was there.

Shuyin's body came halfway up then went back down as the fivesome's exhaustion rose.They tried once more.

"PULL!"

Finally, the five of them summoned enough power to haul him back onto the ship's floor.

A soaking young man arose from behind the boundaries of the deck, heavy water dripping from his clothes and body. His golden hair was now laying heavily against his head, looking completely different from the slightly disheveled form it normally took.

Lenne was the first to grin. She found herself running toward him and opening her arms, pulling both herself and Shuyin in a tight embrace and almost tackling him in the process. She then stopped, realizing what she was doing, and smiled awkwardly. "…Sorry," she said quietly. Shuyin only laughed.

"Are you alright?" Reina asked, brushing herself off, noticing the man's heavy breathing.

"Yeah," he puffed. "I…I'm fine. Thanks a _lot_."

Lenne looked relieved. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Shuyin shook the water out of his hair and ran a sodden hand through it. "Wow…"

"What happened to you?" Lenne questioned. "I came out of the piloting room and…you were gone."

"The ship jerked, and I came flying to the edge," was the blonde swordsman's answer. He looked out into the ocean with complete disgust and kicked the side of the boat. "Who's the damn pilot of this thing?" he asked angrily.

The phrased words that shamefully answered his question seemingly came from nowhere: "Rauke not pilot ship. Rauke fault."

No one moved for a moment. Then, slowly, each guardian's head twirled around to see the Ronso pilot standing before them. Lenne, however, turned around much more quickly.

She almost screamed when she saw the Ronso that she had been speaking to earlier. The summoner had thought he was still in the control room, steering the ship, and when she saw that the blue-skinned man was out on the deck with the rest of them, she found herself startled. She certainly wasn't the only one.

"YOU'RE THE PILOT?" everyone except Lenne shouted in surprise. Rauke slowly but surely nodded.

"If you're the pilot," Darian began, "then…who is steering the ship?"

"No one, now," he answered blankly.

Reina's eyeballs bulged out of their sockets and her mouth began to tremble as he said the words. She shuddered and stared out into the sea, tears developing in her eyes and her mouth beginning to shape into an immense frown.

Lenne waved a hand in front of her face, but the guardian's gaze would not break. She blinked. The summoner was puzzled until she looked out into the ocean as well and saw the same thing Reina saw. She made a sharp intake of breath. Shuyin had seen it as well, and had torn into the control room, but his actions came too late.

The pilot-less boat made another jerk to the left as the top half of Darian's body was forced backward and his legs began to lift off the floor. He tilted off of the deck and flew through the air, shouting.

Reina screamed.

Lenne screeched frantically, leaning over. Within moments, Shuyin, who had scrambled back onto the deck at the sound of the girl's scream, saw her dive swiftly into the water after the brown haired young man.

He broke into a run and pressed his body against the edge. He and Reina caught sight of the two of them, gasping desperately for air above the ripples of waves.

"LENNE!" He grabbed Reina's arm and was ready to fling her and himself into the water until he took notice of a raspy gurgling sound leaving Lenne's mouth. He froze. What?

Reina repeated the sound in a quiet whisper. "Een.."

Shuyin called for her again. Lenne sounded like she might've responded, but was mercilessly pulled underwater by a strange force, squirming in its grasp. Underwater, he caught sight of the summoner kicking something behind her, leaving it motionless for a moment, and was able to hastedly burst upward after utilizing her strength properly.

Darian was not above the water, but was deep under its surface, writhing and struggling with what seemed to be a moving shadow. The only sure thing that Shuyin could make sense of was him grasping his sharp-edged sword in one of his hands and swinging forcefully.

When Lenne arose once more, Shuyin saw with dismay, she was able to squirt out the water in her throat and only had time to barely yelp the word, "Fiend!" before she was pulled down to the depths of the sea.

Shuyin, with a sudden jerk of his hand, snatched his sword out of its sheath and dove headfirst into the water.

Reina shook her head slowly, sighing heavily. She cursed under her breath and pulled out a staff from inside her cover. She bowed her head, muttering a faint, "Protect." A cerulean beam of circling light cupped around her as she leaped hurriedly into the water.

In an instant she was bounded by a mass of rippling dark blue liquid, and she could only glimpse everyone around her vigorously slashing at the fiend. The attacking monster was a vast, scaly creature with an elongated tail about three times the length of Shuyin's height. She swam up behind it and raised her narrow staff to cast a more powerful thunder spell at the end of its tail.

The monster's end stiffed and began swinging about, but its head still remained unturned. From the other side of it, she glimpsed Darian bringing his sword upon its face and swiftly dodging its effort to return the attack by tackling him fiercely to the ground.

As it did so, Reina was smacked forward by its tail and and, unable to swim productively, began floating to the sea floor. The same attack had hit Shuyin's leg, but as he hadn't been given the proctection of Reina's spell, he had been further injured. He winced and cried loudly in pain, swallowing a gulp of water. With his other limbs, his forced himself up to the surface and respired heavily.

He mumbled under his breath forcefully and after a while of regaining momentum, he dove back into the water and, as well as he could, thrust himself towards the creature, hacking at its firm, seagreen scales. He glimpsed Darian swimming under the fiend's body and slicing it's belly skin with his might­— The fiend screeched with the deafening sound of a thousand machina engines and flung itself about, writhing in pain.

The summoner caught sight of Reina fading away further into the darkness of the ocean, and quickly raised her rod to cure the blond's body. After a few moments, the girl regained the use of her legs and arms, and began searching for a way out of the fiend's reach. On the other end, Darian slashed once more under the fiend's stomach before he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, Lenne and Shuyin following Reina further into the depth of the waters. While he could, he swam to catch up with them, and by the time he had almost drawn closer, the group of three abruptly vanished into the shadows. With dismay, his heart skipped a beat when he heard the large creature behind him begin to grow calm and rush toward him.

He glided uneasily through the water as swiftly as possible, ignoring the various small fish floating by as he did so. The darkness of the ocean seemed to engulf him in its gloomy shadows; he could only hope that the fiend pursuing him had no better eyesight than he or his companions. After what seemed like an eternity—although it may have only been around 20 seconds—of escaping from the fiend's clutches, Darian found himself glancing behind him and gawking.

Within moments, the creature had drawn alongside him and opened its colossal jaws.

With one final burst of energy, Darian bolted.

But before he had the change to get too far away from the chomping fiend, a shady figure rapidly grabbed his arm in an unexpected motion, pulling him towards it. He raised his sword, astonished, but stopped when he saw Reina gesturing him to silence. He peeped a look at his surroundings and noticed he was behind the shelter of a damaged machina foundation. An Al Bhed submarine had been abandoned at the spot, and for now he hoped it would suffice.

The creature sniffed the oxygen in the sea and gruadually moved through the water. It silently swam toward the Al Bhed establishment and respired unconciously on Darian's skin. The motionless guardian didn't blink. The only thing the creature could hear was the quickening pace of a heartbeat the closer it moved forward. It's eyes glistened with pleasure, knowing they were close to the prey.

A short distance away, a fish burst upward, breaking the silent atmosphere. The fiend heard its movement, and broke into a hasty swim to pursue it.

No one moved.

Time passed, and the group continued to wait motionlessly for a while, until they were almost sure the fiend couldn't have been anywhere near them any longer. Darian took the chance to peek over the machina. He saw nothing. He wiped his forehead with relief.

He gestered to the group to return to the surface, and Lenne nodded and began to lead the group upwards. They ascended to the ocean's exterior, and, puffing exasperatedly, examined their surroundings. No one spoke, but Shuyin pointed out an area of water that ran into a spot of land. As the four of them came closer, they saw that the land actually extended into a path that let to a place leading to Who-Knew-Where. The four nodded at each other and continued swimming forward.

The respiring group hadn't gone too far before Shuyin turned around and yelped. He was staring at the colossal fiend that had risen from the depths of the sea, eaten the fish that had led it away, and spotted the guardians…and Lenne.

Reina whipped around and with one motion of her hand, cast a hurried "Stop!" spell its way.

The fiend ceased its movement for once instant, but by the time the spell wore off and it had regained its movement and senses, the Spirans were nowhere in sight.

A tumbleweed rolled across the land.

->->-

"Is the coast clear?" Lenne whispered quietly.

"What am I, a phychic?" another voice whispered quietly back.

"No, you could just stand up and see if there's anyone out there before we all get up," she reasoned. Then, to hersself, she murmured, "That way, if you get caught, the rest of us still have time to run away."

"What was that?" Darian asked.

"Oh, nothing," she said unconvincingly. "Can't you at least get up and check for us-"

"Yeah, and now I'm the look-out. What a day," he interjected, rolling his eyes fiercely. "Why don't we have our ol' buddy Shuyin check, ne?"

"Me? Why do I have to check?" came a voice also from behind the tree. "I'm the one who saw the thing in the first place!"

"You already have your sword out," Darian indicated.

"So?"

He was pushed forward by the others.

The guardian sighed and looked both left and right, cautious as ever, and making sure as hell that he wouldn't be forced into another battle with any sort of fiend while he did so.

Lenne began tapping her foot against the rocky ground impatiently. "Well?" she asked him.

"….."

"I'm hungry."

"_Shhh, Darian!_"

"What? I am!"

"Shuyin, _please_ tell us if it's clear or not," she pleaded with a groan. "_Someone _here's starting to get on my nerves."

Darian began to open his mouth to remind her that she and Reina were the ones who had been piled on him in a heap on the ground ever since they were forced to dive behind the protection of the tree- but Shuyin already made his announcement.

"It's clear, everyone."

"Thank Yevon," Lenne mumbled, moving from behind the tree.

As they stepped from behind the oversized plant, they saw that the area ahead of them was a vast strip of land that seemingly stretched out for miles.

"Oh. Great." Darian exhaled tiredly and wrang the water out of his clothes. "You know, there has to be another way," he declared with weary eyes.

"I don't think so…" Shuyin peered ahead, but could see nothing more than what had been clearly seen before. "Nope, no other way," he confirmed.

"So…yeah. We're just going to keep going on like this until, oh I don't know, the end of TIME? We don't know where this path leads!" Darian pointed out.

"Okay, Mr. Bigshot, then you tell us what to do," suggested the annoyed guardian. "Or have the heavens suddenly deprived your gift of surpeme expertise in mapping?"

"…You expect me to answer that?" he growled in reply.

"Yes, actually, I do."

"Then, don't get too disappointed when I say no." The two glared at each other, and Darian seemed ready to add in another comment before he was interrupted.

"Boys, boys. We don't have time to argue," Lenne reminded them. "We probably have another day's walk before we reach the nearest city, anyway."

"She's right," Reina said. "It's already about…" She moved past them and studied the position of the Sun for a moment. "Probably a little after noon. And, um… Do you really think we should waste time bickering, when we could be walking and spending our time wisely?"

They all shook their heads.

Reina smiled. "So, let's get going then."

Reina, Shuyin and Lenne moved on, but the impatient guardian stayed behind. He groaned. "I can't walk that far.."

Lenne examined him. "And why not? Did you sprain an ankle?" she asked, concerned.

Darian shook his head. "No, um… I think I sprained… both ankles!" he exclaimed in an unconvincing tone.

Shuyin smirked and, this time, _Darian_ was the one who was reluctantly pushed forward, and the Spirans began walking.

_->->-_

The ground was covered in small, rocky gravel that grinded and crunched when the companions stepped across it, dripping water everywhere. For people who were meant to destroy the most powerful being on Spira, they seemed rather downtrodden.

Part of the reason for this was because of the fact that they had all just been attacked by a gargantuan fiend of the sea who had attempted to find them, catch them, and munch hungrily on their livers, but the main factor was their appearance: four desperately exhausted people with sodden, dripping, ripped clothes, completely disheveled hair and, despite the smiles that had been forced onto their faces, doubtful expressions.

Lenne, every now and again, would have to step over the outstretched plants that extended throughout her path. As she grew closer to each one, she would slow her pace and notice a round, small object protruding from each of the vines. She squinted and took notice of a slightly curved line in the center of the round entities.

"Um.. what is this?"

Shuyin stooped down to examine one. He picked up a twig from the ground and prodded it. Finally, he simply said, "I don't know. Weed, maybe?"

Maybe. Maybe not. Lenne didn't know, but in her mind it was more of a "maybe not." The only comment she made aloud was, "Hmm."

Time passed- slowly, but it passed nevertheless. The Sun was now in a completely new position in the afternoon sky, but it seemed like five days had gone by before it even moved.

It was because of this unbelieveably slow-moving afternoon that eventually resulted in the kicking of various ground rocks to occur.

"Um, what are you doing?"

Reina nervously questioned this, noting the fact that a numerous amount of tiny, white worms were crawling on the bottom of most of the rocks.

Darian furrowed his brow in thought. "You know, I have no clue. But it does seem to pass the time. Wanna try? There's one right there, I'll let you handle it if you want," he said.

"Oh, er… no thank you, that's quite alright, really."

Shuyin frowned greatly. "Have we gotten any closer?" he asked Reina doubtfully.

She turned around slowly and shook her head. "Not really," she said truthfully.

"Didn't think so."

"I really can't believe we're walking this far," Darian commented, observing the area once more, now that they had finally concluded that they'd made no significant progress since before. He looked up into the sky, stumbling over an outstretched vine extending from a rather large weed on the ground.

Lenne suppressed a laugh.

Reina agreed. "He's right, the path doesn't seem to be going anywhere, other than to a dead-end, maybe.We could probaby be walking right into the hands of a fiend."

"_Again_," Lenne added thoughtfully.

Shuyin nodded, shrugging. "But we could _also_ be walking right into the hands of a _hotel_…"

"Or a weed-whacker," Darian murmured, booting the plant to the ground with a foot. After a few more paces of walking, he gave up altogether and took his stationary spot on a boulder beside the path. The others did the same.

Lenne thought aloud after a moment. "Do you know what we should do?" She looked at Reina, who shook her head. She grinned. "Cast Haste!"

Reina's expression resembled that of a sweat-dropping anime character. "WHAT?" she screamed, loud enough for the people in Luca to hear.

"THAT WAS MY EAR!" Darian shouted just as loudly.

Shuyin stood up from the boulder and walked a few paces away. "…And that was mine," he mumbled.

Reina took out her staff. "I can't believe I didn't think of that," she said quietly. "I can cast Haste on all of us, making us travel at a greater speed, thus getting us to Kilika faster!"

After Darian recovered, he nodded in agreement. "Great idea!" he said. "Just hope it doesn't wear off any time soon… And I would also like to remind you that the chance of us still being able to reach Kilika at this point in time is…well…quite low, really." He lifted himself off of the boulder, deciding it was best if they continued at a steady pace at least, and once again the others did the same.

"I guess that's true, but if I use my staff, the spell shouldn't wear off," Reina said. "The staff makes the magic slightly more powerful than it normally would be, so I think it should work fine. And…if it doesn't…"

"We're screwed."

"Exactly."

Lenne nodded. "But, other than that, we can put it to use, and we'll be out of here by sundown, right?" She had a hopeful smile implanted on her face, and it started to edge away when it took Reina a while to answer.

And it was a short answer at that. "I think," she said.

"Hmm," Lenne hummed, not because she was thinking about something in particular, but because it was a safe, wordless, lazy answer that didn't require any unnessesary speech.

She had to stop herself from collapsing onto the ground a few moments later. She actually did once, but Shuyin, standing behind, would only catch her midfall. She thought she even saw _him_ start to nod off as well, but he quickly shook his head and continued the brisk pace.

Lenne's head was beginning to nod again when she heard footsteps behind her.

She spun around.

"_Summoner!_"

"Gah! Fieeeeend!" Darian shouted, pulling out his sword in a hurry. Then he caught a closer glimpse of the blue blur racing toward them and frowned. "No…its… What the..?"

He saw the horned Ronso hustling toward them with a spear clutched in his hand. His horn seemed to bob up and down with him as his long, strenuous legs carried him swiftly to Lenne—or rather, _beside _Lenne.

"Rauke!"

He leaped to her side and swung his lance at an olive, fertile entity leaning over her foot.

_What the hell?_ she thought, her mouth dropping.She shrieked with surprise and beffuddlement. "What… what are you doing here?" she asked, perplexed.

"If Ronso not able to pilot, Ronso help gracious summoner with pilgrimage," he stated simply and in phrases. He read the still confused expression on the young woman's face, and he added, "Plants are fiends, not vines. Plants' heads bite summoner's feet and make poison."

He was speaking of the vines on the ground that Darian had almost tripped over earlier.

The sudden greeting of the Ronso left the group in surprise, but Reina seemed to understand. She nodded and backed away from the vines, pointing at them. "Oh…I get it! The plants aren't really plants, but are…traps?"

Rauke nodded.

Darian glared at the plant that he had about to step near. He smashed the vine with his foot and stomped repeatedly on it. "I knew they were bad from the beginning!" she stated.

Shuyin tried in vain to stifle a laugh.

"Oh, of _course_ that was funny," Darian said sarcastically. "I've seen better audiences than that in machina dumpsters." He knew it was against the teachings of Yevon to use machina, as did the rest of the them, but he hardly let it show.

Lenne looked at the Ronso and then at his spear. "Um…. Why are you here? What happened to the ship?" she asked.

He stared at the ground, mumbling, "Ship sink with attacking fiend," and immediately Lenne knew that the fiend who had attacked them and lost its prey had gone back to his ship to get its revenge. Her heart sank at the distressing image of Rauke having to jump off board at the sight of his own ship being assaulted by an angry monster.

"Group must walk to Kilika," he replied, choosing not to speak of the boat's whereabouts. "Rauke not know ways of the sea. Not without map." His voice brightened and as he lifted his head and continued. "But Rauke can help with ways of land."

Lenne grinned. "Then you know the way to Kilika from here?"

"Rauke assist summoner in pilgrimage, in case guardians are not enough," he said simply, smiling gracefully at her.

"Hey, what's _that _supposed to mean?" asked a certain cautious Darian. "We've been her guardians since the beginning, and will be her guardians until Sin is defeated. Who says YOU can butt in?"

Lenne leaned over to clamp him heartily on the shoulder- mostly to hurt him slightly, therefore giving him the sly hint to allow the Ronso to join them for the time being. "Don't worry about it," she assurred him.

"Um.. yeah, don't mind him. He's just a bit too careful when it comes to this kind of stuff," Reina said to Rauke.

Darian sighed. "Fine, side with her, see if I care!"

The Ronso looked into the sky. He pointed in the direction of the Sun, which was indeed the direction that the group had been taking since they reached land. Darian took this as a signal that they had been going the right way to Kilika all along.

He seemed to jump five and a half feet high in the air- which, indeed, was about as tall as Reina was. "So.. then, we're close?" he asked enthusiastically.

The Ronso proceeded to the side of the path and squatted, kicking a piece of wood and, with a twig, brushing off the weeds that entangled it.

It read, "Kilika Town Straight Ahead" in faint letters that could hardly be seen without (#1.) extremely good vision, or (#2.) a tall, bulky blue Ronso named Rauke who owned a ship that had been molested by a colossal flesh-eating monster of the seas.

"Yes."

_->->-_

"Guardians here," Rauke announced speedily to the group, ushering them into the city, "and summoner."

"W-we're here?" Darian stammered, scanning his surroundings intensely, and bobbing up and down.

Kilika- it was a town with various bystanders wandering aimlessly about, a town made mostly of small, wood, stone, and straw huts and wooden walkways that creaked when they were walked on. The village was smaller and less busy than Zanarkand had ever been in all of its years, Lenne noted, and it also seemed to be a lot calmer and more tranquil, more welcome to visitors, than Zanarkand had been as well.

There weren't fans standing around houses, chanting impatiently for blitzballers or songstresses, there wasn't anyone yelling out on the streets for seemingly no reason- It was a much quieter place.

Lenne had no interest in it.

_I'm here to rest, get the Aeon, and move on, _she told herself. That, however, wouldn't happen in a million years, and somewhere inside of her, she knew it full well.

"T-t-thank Yevon!" Darian cried, his eye twitching as his body continued to bob up and down. "Finally! I think you can un-cast Haste now."

"Oh, right. Sorry about that." With the forceful movement of her hand, the group ceased their restless movement.

"So, this is it, eh?" Shuyin said, observing, with a smile on his face. "YES!" he screamed to the skies. "Thanks so much, Rauke!"

Darian nodded vigorously. "So now we can finally get some rest!"

"Rauke gladly help summoner who defeats Sin. Rauke need no thanks."

Lenne smiled and, filled with bliss that she could finally leap onto a bed in the hotel, which was effectively labeled "HOTEL" in the corner of the area, embraced the Ronso tightly. "We _still _thank you," she grinned.

"Now, off to that hotel," Shuyin said, waving Rauke and the rest of the group away. "I'm bushed."

Darian smirked. "I'll bet you fifty gil that I'll beat you there."

"_What?_ Yeah, _right_."

The two young men tore off and burst into the hotel, startling various occupants in the room, who screamed fearfully and ran for cover behind the counter.

Lenne rolled her eyes. "Guys…" she said, shaking her head. Reina nodded vigorously. They both began to walk into the hotel themselves, before a strange figure approached them.

At first the summoner only saw a shadow covering his face- which was odd, as he wasn't wearing a hood- but as he came closer, she could see his face clearly.

It was a man probably in his thirties, with brown hair and reflective, dark purple glasses that shaded his eyes completely. He was clothed in a long red jacket and held a long, outsized sword in his right hand. His left hand, however, was held in a sling-like position, and a jug of mysterious liquid hung from his thick belt.

He had a deep voice.

"Yuna? Yuna, is it you?"

* * *


	5. The Meeting

Author's Note- Yes. I left that chapter on a evil cliffhanger. And I'm proud! (cackles) (chokes) (dies). Well, it wasn't _that _bad, was it? (readers glare angrily, nodding) Well, I at least updated quickly. Less than a week. If you told me I was going to update this in less than a week, I'd normally laugh and kill you, but I actually _did._ I'm proud of myself!

Darian: (points) Um… it couldn't have been _that _hard, could it? After all, the chapter is pretty short. (counts) It's hardly five pages long!

Shut up! (throws table at Darian) I'm _still _proud of myself. And I'm ending this author's note because the disclaimer is long and takes up all of the space in the world. Well, not really, but I'm continuing anyway.

I realized I hadn't done a disclaimer for a while, and I also realized I was lazy and tired after typing this up, and so I asked a friend for some help. (points to Auron's Fan)

**Shadray:** Brie?  
**Auron's** **Fan:** hm?  
**Shadray:** do you mind helping me with my disclaimer?  
**Auron's Fan:** um...okay  
**Shadray:** okay then. go ahead. (stage lights all point to you)  
**Auron's Fan:** (blows up stage lights) you know i'm damn sexy without them...  
**Shadray:** O.O  
**Auron's Fan:** (begins to sing) SHAAAAAAAAAAADRAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! doesn't own... hit it my homies! (Auron and Tidus walk out)  
**Tidus:** wtfh are we doing here?  
**Auron:** smile and wave...just smile and wave...  
**Shadray:** -nods-  
**Auron's Fan:** oh...the disclaimer...of DOOM  
**Auron's Fan:** AHHH!  
**Shadray:** O,O;;;...be afraid.  
**Auron's Fan:** oh...hm...okay. (acts serious) shadray only owns one half of the world, I own spira. bye! (flees from cops) (stops) and why should I, the messiah, be afraid?  
**Shadray:** um...(points) because there is a messiah-eating 10-foot tall bug searching for you?  
**Shadray:** (raises eyebrows)  
**Auron's Fan:** dude. Auron can turn a million feet. AND...he's just plain hot  
**Shadray:** Darian: o o;;; end this now, before we all explode.  
**Auron's Fan:** no! (slaps him)  
**Shadray:** ooooooookay then. Well, I think we're all done here.  
**Auron's Fan:** NO WE ISN'T!  
**Auron's Fan:** (slaps Shadray)  
**Auron's Fan:** (goes on a bitchslapping spree)  
**Rose:** (points) this disclaimer is getting long enough. -looks through computer screen, at readers- and, um... the readers are slowly dying here.  
**Shadray:** (nods)  
**Shadray:** Now read and review! And…er… enjoy!

_Chapter Five: The Meeting_

* * *

_"Yuna? Yuna, is it you?"_

Looking at him now, she began to take notice of the long, loud breaths he took as he spoke, and noted the scars and dirt on his tough skin. From one glance, she could've concluded that he wasn't an average man- he had something different about him. Was it that this man had the look of a warrior? Lenne couldn't even answer her own question- let alone answer the question of what the hell was going on.

"Yuna?" the man repeated. He grabbed Lenne's hand and pulled her toward him slightly.

She stared in shock and snatched back her hand. _What the hell?_

" _'Yuna'?_" Reina questioned, confused. "Lennie, do you know this guy? What's he talking about?"

She shook her head. "Wh- Who are you?" the summoner asked him firmly, weilding her staff tightly behind her back, ready to call upon Valefor at any given time.

The man frowned, as if she had given him the wrong answer. "Auron," he said.

The mysterious wanderer clenched his teeth, hoping she had been joking when she asked his name, and knowingly ignoring the Ronso's security. "Where are the others?"

She blinked and looked covertly around the area for potential support from anyone else. No one acknowledged her. "What others?"

His frown worsened. "The_ others_," he repeated. "Tidus, Kimahri, Lulu, Wakka- the other ones guarding you on your pilgrimage? Don't tell me you lost your memory, Yuna. We've come too far, there's no time, we have to _go!_"

"I don't know who those people are," Lenne answered candidly. The thought of turning around and tearing into the hotel ran through her mind, but she stayed still nevertheless.

A numerous amount of civilians walked by, pivoting their heads her way as they trotted past. When Reina turned to stare back at them acutely, their wandering sight quickly took its rightfulplace back ahead of them.

"Sure you do," he insisted critically. "We've been accompanying you all this time. You ran off, summoner, and they're all looking for you."

The summoner began to grow suspicious. " 'Summoner?' " she inquired. "Who are _you_ to beusing that label?"

"Sir Auron!"

"Um, we don't know who this Yuna is," Reina told him, "or Auron, for that matter. Summoner _Lenne_ and the rest of us began the pilgrimage yesterday."

The Ronso nodded. "Do not hurt summoner. She did nothing to you."

His hopeful expression lost its liveliness as the man stared at the ground. "I see. Sorry," he said disappointedly. "I mistook you for someone else."

"Obviously," Lenne commented.

An awkward silence spread for a moment, but as the man began to walk off, she ended it completely by calling out, "Who's Yuna?"

He turned around and looked into the summoner's eyes.

His thick stare seemed to cut right through her, as if he was looking past her body and at someone standing behind her. He nodded and mumbled the words, "Yuna Stenning," just loud enough for both girls to hear.

They froze.

Reina had recalled a moment not too long ago, when they had not yet set out from Zanarkand. She remembered Shuyin asking the summoner just why she had chosen them to be their guardians- and it was something that Darian said that now made her stomach turn. She shut her eyes hard to remember the sentence, but after a second her eyes snapped open again as the words renewed in her brain.

She gasped noticeably.

_"So, _m'lady_," Shuyin had joked, laughing, "why did you choose_ us_ to be your guardians?"_

_Darian had interrupted: "Because my name is Lenne Stenning, and-"_

She shook her head_. No, probably not, _she told herself.

"Um, sorry, I didn't hear you, what did you say?" Lenne asked the man who claimed to be named Auron, although she knew very well that she'd heard him perfectly the first time.

He walked up to the two of them, wearing the same dark, serious face that he'd been wearing when the summoner had first seen him. "Yuna Stenning?" he said louder.

Her eyes widened and her heart quickened its pounding pace. _Oh my God... _

"Why?"

"…That… that's my last name," Lenne said awkwardly.

His stare broke through her. "What is?" he asked. "_Stenning_?" He watched her nod, but didn't open his mouth to say a response; he blinked.

Reina mused what he was thinking.

He slowly began to study the atmosphere around him, noting the fewer amount of people who walked by than what he had recalled. "Excuse me, but what town is this, again?" he queried with a raised eyebrow.

Reina shot him a look. _If someone enters a town,_ she thought, _they should at least be able to know where they are going. _She exasperatedly pointed to the sign reading "Kilikan Hotel" in front of the inn, while Lenne pointed out the sign reading "Kilikan Items and Weaponry" and the Ronso pointed out the sign reading "Kilika Temple- Continue".

"Oh…" _That's funny,_ he supposed thoughfully. _This place looks nothing like the way I remember it. What's happened? I wonder if... _

"What time era is this?" he then asked aloud.

"What? What do you mean?"

He cleared his throat and reworded his question. "What year is it right now?" he said, choosing his words warily.

"Well, it's the year 50 A.B., if that answers your question," the summoner said, feeling like she was having a regular conversation with a stranger- an outsider, a foreigner, or even an alien. She shuddered.

"A.B.?"

"Of course. 'After Birth'; 50 years ago, when Sin was born."

"_What?_" He was taken aback by her words and began to feel a stiffness in his fingers. "No!" _Sin was born over a thousand years ago! This can't be! _He glared at the summoner. "You lie."

She gave him a look.

"_It can't be!"_

"It _is_, and if you'll excuse us, we have a place to be right now," Lenne declared, unscathed by his current emotion. But, as she began to turn to the inn, the mage guardian was quick to tap her shoulder, forcing her to turn around, and she pointed out that the man had dropped to the ground, glaring at the wood beneath him.

She sighed and lifted him to his feet. "I guess you should come with us to the hotel."

"Fine," he said, speechlessly hobbling off with them into the inn. When the small door swung open and four very strange outsiders walked in, the room fell to a hush.

It must've looked odd- a Ronso, a mage, and a stunned and confused man being guided by a well-known songstress.

Well, it certainly defied the customary, predictable manner in which most people entered hotels.

Lenne felt like she had suddenly sprouted six extra heads.

Reina walked to the counter and dug into her pockets for 50 gil. She placed it on the counter. "A room, please, sir?"

Every figure in the room immediately began babbling on incomprehendably, knocking over chairs and tables in the process.

When the group had finally obtained a room in which they could discuss the situation, they saw immediately that the two guardians had been waiting for them inside. Darian stood leaning against the wall on the far side of the door and Shuyin sat in a chair by the window.

As they walked inside, the summoner took a spot against the wall perpindicular to the tallest guardian. Darian stole a glance at the man behind her who sat and spread himself over one of the beds closest to the doorway, and gave her a questioning look. He'd been wearing a dark navy and burgandy shirt and black jean-like pants of a tough, thick texture, and had tanned skin and short dark brown hair that seemed to have a life of its own, small spikes framing his face in a slightly disorderly manner. He furrowed his brow and asked suspiciously, "Who are you?"

She nodded and softly said, "Auron. I think he might be lost."

"Might be?" Reina asked unapprovingly, dusting off her pants.

They were very modern for the current time period, as not many Spirans were able to purchase such jeans. They were dark blue, widened at the bottom, and tightened near the top. Her shirt was unable to be seen beneath the jacket she'd been wearing, and her golden hair, loose and falling freely to her shoulders, curved inwardly to her face at the end of each strand. She plopped herself down on another bed.

"Yes, might be. He has yet to tell us where he came from."

Auron sat up. "This place used to be so different, so much more...lively," he said. "I just don't get it. I could've sworn I saw Yuna walk right into that glyph."

Shuyin stared questioningly at him. "What glyph?" he asked.

The past guardian looked up at the rest of the people in the room, who were all nodding in agreement at Shuyin's question, and stood up, contemplating.

"Well..." he began, staring darkly at a wall. "It was in Bevelle. Our summoner Yuna was forced to marry Maester Seymour Guado, and-"

"Maester Seymour Guado?" Darian questioned.

"He was a summoner during his own time, too. I was told long ago that he ended his pilgrimage just before his final battle with Sin- even after he'd obtained his Final Aeon," he said in his deep voice. "But that doesn't matter. He stole Yuna from us and took her with him to Bevelle, planning to force him to marry her. But she narrowly escaped his clutches, just before the marriage."

"What happened to her?" Shuyin said, running a hand through his hair, more coolly than worriedly.

"We don't know. We went searching for her in the Cloister of Trials, and I could've sworn I saw her touch a white glyph in the corner that took up the area of the entire wall. When she touched it, the wall shattered, and a black portal opened. Only, when I went in after her, I ended up at the entrance to this place."

"So what? Are you still searching for her?" Shuyin shook his head. "Did anyone else follow you into the portal?"

He shrugged. "I'd hope not," he said quietly. "I just don't understand why your summoner and Yuna look so alike." Then he got a good look at the blitzer's face and gaped. "And... and you look like someone I know too! What's going on here?"

"What? Me? Who do_ I _look like?"

Wandered through the room and he realized that almost each and every person by him reminded him- if not only a little bit- of a different guardian he once knew. He stared at them.

The group stared back.

"It doesn't make sense. What is going _on_ here!" he shouted loudly, slamming his fist down on a table. _"What is happening!"_

Countless questions were protruding from his mind: Why did the glyph falter and shatter? Why were he and Yuna sent to two different places? Why did the people who were standing by him look so much like the other guardians of the summoner he had promised to protect so long ago? This wasn't his story; this wasn't supposed to happen. His story was back in Bevelle, with Tidus and the others.

He wanted to erupt and burn the world with his boiling questions.

But he could only stand there foolishly, taking in thousands of more thoughts than he let out. He rubbed his forehead, vainly attempting to eradicate the massive headache that had begun to commence.

"Um," Reina started,"why were you so astounded when we told you the year? What year was it before you came here?" she asked.

He shook the thoughts out of his mind and blinked hard. He couldn't believe the words that were coming out of his own mouth as he said it, yet it was true. "One... one thousand and fifty years after the birth of Sin," he faltered.

"_What!_" Darian said, hardly believing the sentence. "Is that possible!"

Lenne frowned. "If the idea of a port hole connecting two worlds can be believed, I guess this can happen too," she responded considerately, moving the hair from her face.

"Rauke thinks Lady Yuna must be up at Bevelle," The Ronso confirmed pensively. "That's where the portal was; must be where she is too."

Auron looked at the quiet, blue-skinned figure, and a hardly noticeable smile found its way across his face. "She must be…" he said enthusaistically. "The portal. We must've gotten sent to two different places- the portal was only meant to send us to the same time period, not to the same area…."

"That's right!" Lenne cried out. "Your summoner must be there! So, I guess we should take you there, since you obviously don't know your way around to well."

"But neither do we," Darian pointed out.

It was true. They weren't even able to find Kilika effectively- it was pure luck that they had made their way there, and as the guardian reminded her of this, the thought raced back to her memory. But as it did, another thought raced back as well, and her eyes widened dramatically.

"But didn't you say Yuna's last name was Stenning?" she said.

He nodded.

She walked about the room, looking at the floor as she did so. She squinted and furrowed her brow. "The thought of this sounds weird, but... I suppose I must be her…"

Auron finished the sentence for her. "…Ancestor!"

The others, who had been listening intently, gawked, shocked.

The blonde warrior was the only one who spoke up. "Which means," he concluded quietly, "that you are legally Lenne's guardian, too."

Auron gave him a questioning look. "_It does?_"

"…It does!" she exclaimed, smiling. She plopped dramatically onto the nearest bed, spreading out easily. "So, _Guardian _Auron, _when_ will you be escorting us to the Kilika Temple, again?"

Auron gaped.


	6. A Piano, and a Guardian's Decision

Notes- Sorry for the long wait, everyone. I was just really busy, and I was updating other stories too. But I'm getting back on top of things again, as I'm now updating _something_, twice a week. so, sorry about that. Let's move on.

Where We Left Off- Well, in the last chapter we had a chapter-long conversation with Auron, and found out that Lenne is Yuna's descendant. What, in Yevon's name, is going on? Supposedly, if Lenne is truly Yuna's descendant, it means Auron is technically Lenne's summoner too.

...O.O;;;

* * *

Chapter 6: Kilikan Events 

Auron's stunned expression soon departed his face and was replaced with what looked like disgust; he was not amused.

"You lie. Where does it say such a thing?" he growled, glaring at the four others in the room coldly. "You must think it funny, taking advantage of someone lost. I'll find Yuna alone."

He made for the exit, but Lenne was quick to grab his arm. "You can't leave!" She stood up. "You can't expect to find her on your own, no matter—"

"I can and I will," the man said, breaking away irritably, "and I would like to see you stop me." He was almost at the door when he stopped and slowly turned around, muttering, "You don't know the promise I made—I've got to keep it."

"Oh, do you?" Darian said, raising his brow. "And I suppose you don't think _we've_ made any promises? It's just you, huh?"

But the golden-haired young man sitting in the center of the room cut him off, gesturing to the door. "Hey, if he wants to go, let him go; it's his choice."

"Yuna needs my help; guardians are meant to do that. I have to be there for her, and besides," Auron said quietly in his deep voice, "I don't belong here. This is _your_ story. Yevon—" He stopped abruptly.

"What about him?" Lenne asked, wanting to hear what Auron had to say.

He froze. _Mention nothing, _he told himself, blinking hard. He knew better than to tell them anything that wasn't necessary. He shook his head and said, "He was a spectacular person, and Yuna and I have got to get back to the Bevellian temple to honor him with the others."

Lenne sensed a very subtle break in his voice. Her expression must have seemed noticeably suspicious, because Auron's penetrating eyes flickered in her direction for a short moment.

"Well…" Reina began, after listening intently to the conversation since its start, "I don't know if you should go by yourself. After all, I mean, you don't know your way around very well; something could happen to you on your way, and—"

But Auron was not listening. He was silently narrowing his eyes at the floor, and Lenne could clearly see that he was thinking very quickly. "She…she must be somewhere in Bevelle."

"What? _Who_?"

Auron looked up. "Yuna. She's got to be somewhere in Bevelle."

Lenne made a slight nod. The person he was looking for—where else would she have ended up but Bevelle, if not with him? Lenne glanced around the room. "You're right, she must be."

There was a discomforted silence among them. Then Darian nodded as well. "Maybe—" He squinted. "Maybe we _should_ get you there."

Every eye faced Darian, waiting expectantly for him to explain himself. Hadn't it been _he_ who had previously disapproved of taking Auron anywhere? Why the sudden change of mind? He now had seemed to have made up his mind to guide Auron rather promptly, and such a decision should have been thought out carefully. After all, this man _had _shown up from nowhere, and it would require a high amount of trust for them to know that he wasn't attempting to trick them. But then, Lenne reminded herself, why would he be lying about something like this?

Darian nodded gravely and continued. "Rauke, isn't Bevelle the home of the last regular Aeon?" he asked the Ronso, expecting him to know more about the Spiran land than any of the others. The blue-skinned figure nodded almost immediately; clearly his piloting ability had given him a large knowledge of the different cities of Spira.

"So…" Darian raised his eyebrows anxiously, expecting the others to catch on to his idea. "We would have to go to Bevelle anyway, if we wanted to obtain all the primary Aeons before moving on to the final one, right? Shouldn't we—?"

"He's right," Reina agreed. "If Auron wants to make it to Bevelle on his own, he'd have a heck of a harder time. I say we accompany him—or, rather, he accompanies _us_ until we get there."

Lenne and Shuyin nodded understandingly. Auron was the only one who had not responded.

After a moment's silence, he said darkly, "I'll suppose I'll have to get back to you on that," and swept to the exit, leaving the others alone in the room.

There was an awkward silence. Then—

"He's not coming back, is he?" Darian asked.

"Nope."

But there was suddenly a loud rushing noise of stomping feet scrambling from the hallway outside of the room that caused the conversation to come to a sudden close.

"Hm?"

The room fell completely silent, and each person had an eyebrow cocked, wondering what was going on. Darian, displeased that he had been cut off, marched to the door and peered out of the small window at the top of it.

"What—?" He swung the door open. Everyone else in the building was stampeding outside, as if there were a fire in the hotel.

"What _is_ it?" Reina inquired nervously, noting the floor's trembling. "Is—is there an earthquake?"

Darian shook his head. "No, there must be something outside," he reasoned. Then he muttered, "Who would interrupt me like this? This better be good, or someone's getting their butt kicked. Hard."

And with that, for Darian entered the hallway, following the charging crowd. Lenne, her brow furrowed, was the first of them to follow Darian's lead.

_->->-_

She was immediately immersed in a rapid flow of stampeding residents of the hotel, and she found herself unable to see Darian up ahead or anyone else she knew. She was carried off downstairs, past the lobby and outside, where she saw a crowd of applauding townspeople bowing graciously and beaming at what looked like a middle-aged woman up ahead. An important-looking man accompanied her, his arm around her waist.

Lenne peered closer at the woman, who was barely visible over the tops of the heads of the rest of the horde of spectators. Still, this female was someone who Lenne had always idolized as a child; there was no way she could mistake her:

_Lady Yunalesca?_

The High Summoner had a long, dark cloak drawn around her exposed body, which was clothed with very revealing attire. Her violet hair stretched far down past her back, and it moved easily with the wind. The hand around her waist belonged to a man with tan skin and short brown hair. He seemed to be around the age of 50, and apparently had some sort of romance with Lady Yunalesca. Lenne was surprised at this; the only man Yunalesca had loved, supposedly, was—

_Lord Zaon!_ Her eyes widened. Why would they be here?

Yunalesca lifted up a hand to signal the crowd to silence themselves. When the area became quiet enough for her to speak audibly, she nodded.

"Good evening, residents of Kilika," she said calmly, speaking loud and clear enough for everyone to hear perfectly. "As you all know, I am the High Summoner Yunalesca. And my husband, Zaon…." She gestured to the man beside her, who nodded and waved to the crowd but said nothing. "I have come from Zanarkand to speak to you all about the monster that I defeated one decade ago, today: Sin."

There was a detectable stir in the crowd. No one spoke, but there was a sudden tenseness that Lenne could sense. She listened more intently, eager to hear what the High Summoner had to say about Sin, the creature Lenne herself had set out to destroy.

"Yes—Sin lives on."

This time people gasped and whispered, flabbergasted, to one another, astounded at the sudden information they had received. Lenne, of course, had known, but apparently most of the others in Spira had assumed Sin was gone forever. But this was not so.

"Yes, it appears that our knowledge of Sin was indeed incorrect," Yunalesca went on. "We have learned of our incorrect assumptions months ago, but I am afraid no one was ready to tell the public at the time. But I feel you must all know, for without sufficient knowledge each one of us is forever doomed.

"Sin will not die permanently at the hands of the Final Aeon; he will, instead, continue to rebirth himself after every temporary defeat. There should be a short period of time before Sin regenerates after each defeat, perhaps a decade or two. But, no, citizens, the creature will never die permanently until we all, as followers of Yevon, atone for our sins.

"Our use of machina has damned us and birthed the monster Sin. It is, of course, true that the monster can be killed by a summoner and his or her Final Aeon—but not forever. For it to be entirely killed we must _all_ atone for the use of machina. This means no one in Spira must use machina in any way, or support it. It is only then that we can have a hope of prevailing." She paused.

People took this chance to whisper anxiously to one another, exchanging incredulous comments. Lenne looked about for any small glimpse of any of her guardians, but she did not find them—or Auron.

"Of course I know it will be difficult, somewhat, for you all to accept this new reality," Yunalesca continued. "There is time for you to grow accustomed to it—but you must do so quickly. You see, Lord Zaon and I have planned out things wonderfully.

"We need a large group of summoners to set out to obtain the Final Aeon as quickly as possible, so that one of them may defeat Sin, temporarily destroying him for a decade or so. It is during this short Calm that we, the people of Spira, are to ban all machina and change our ways of life. We must all praise Yevon every day at a Temple and ask for forgiveness for our sins. If we can succeed in atoning in this manner, Sin will not return. Spira—will no longer be a world of death."

No one moved, but instead listened even more intently to her urgent plans.

"But before we can even begin this, we _must_ have more summoners set out to kill Sin. This will raise our chances of having one of them successfully kill him off for a time. For the past week Zaon and I have been making our way to each Spiran city to tell them of this need. This town, Kilika, is the only one we did not visit; so far there are only thirty summoners willing to risk their lives for our atonement. We must have more. Please step forward if you are a summoner, or know one who lives here but is not currently present."

There was a moment of motionlessness, but when it passed there were four people who stepped forward. Lenne, who was one of them, awkwardly sent a hand through her hair, nervous to be in front of the High Summoner.

"Everyone, give these brave people a hand."

Loud applause abruptly filled Lenne's ears. Now in a new position, she hoped she could spot one of her guardians—but once again she saw none, and frowned.

"Please, I would like every one of you people here to go home and attempt to persuade someone—anyone—to become a summoner and help us with our plan to rid Spira of Sin once and for all. Good day to you all."

Yunalesca nodded to Zaon, who slowly led her away, out of sight.

People began conversing animatedly to one another, discussing what they had just heard. Lenne slid her way through the swarm of people to look for her guardians and found herself just walking back to the hotel room, thinking that, perhaps, someone would had stayed there instead of followed her and Darian to Yunalesca.

She slowly creaked open the door, stepped inside, and grinned.

There, leaning casually against a wall—was Auron.

* * *

Frustrated, Shuyin kicked a rock on the ground, causing it to shoot away. Where had Lenne gone to _now_? He had not been able to catch up with her after she left the hotel room to follow the swarming crowd outside. And now he could not find her at all.

He considered asking someone if they had seen her walk by, but the thought left his mind as quickly as it had entered; there were too many people here for anyone to notice her personally.

He told himself that if Lenne didn't show up in the next five minutes, he would give up. _Well, _he reasoned, _not "give up"—but take a break, more like. _

As a guardian, Shuyin could never give up on Lenne. Besides, she needed him with her as much as he needed her. But then he stopped, realizing what he was thinking, and shook his head as if to clear it of thoughts.

She had been a very pretty woman, Lenne, and it had not been difficult for Shuyin to accept to being her guardian, back in Zanarkand. Of course he hadn't been able to contact his blitzball team to tell them of his departure, but hoped they'd do all right anyway—although he knew very well that this was a useless hope.

He had been the star, always the star. The others were normally just there to support him, back him up, pass the ball to him—that sort of thing. He had never exactly approved of that himself; the team seemed to have low confidence and did not think they'd win without Shuyin always there to play. He, being the captain of the team, had tried over and over again to up their self-esteem—but to no avail. The only thing _that_ led to was a headache.

After a while, Shuyin had given up and continued to play the game the way the rest of the team deemed it best to play.

He could imagine the looks on their faces when they learned that their blitzball coach had suddenly left Zanarkand without a trace, without giving a word to anyone. It had been a spur of the moment thing, really, and at the time when he agreed to be Lenne's guardian he hadn't really thought out what he was getting himself into.

Still, he didn't really regret it. He would—and could—never.

Shuyin caught sight of a nearby restaurant up ahead. _Probably the only one in town, _he guessed, and he quickly realized how hungry he was. He found himself striding in, almost immediately.

The place was larger than he had suspected, yet still petite in its own way. There was a small stage on which a black, polished piano and a leather bench sat, and behind that was a series of round, wooden tables which were accompanied by cushioned wooden chairs. The restaurant, however, had no customers seated in these chairs, and, considering that the lights were all off, it was most likely either closed or abandoned.

He was about to make his way back outside when the door swung open and a figure flicked on the lights, which dimly illuminated the place.

The figure, a middle-aged woman with long, black hair and a slightly rotund shape, smiled at him. "Oh, hello. I wasn't expecting anyone—are you an employee here?" she asked.

"Oh, no," Shuyin responded, shaking his head. "I just came in for some food, but—well, I didn't know the place was closed." He furrowed his brow. "It _is_ closed, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is. I'm only here to prepare my piano selections for tomorrow night," the woman said. "I'm to play beautiful music in the background, while the customers dine. Or at least that's what it said on the job description when I applied." She shrugged. "I'm Marie," she extended her hand.

Shuyin shook it with what must have been a surprisingly firm grip, for Marie recoiled. "Oh, sorry about that. Shuyin," he added, introducing himself. "This must be your first time here, I'm guessing. I should leave you to practice with the piano for tomorrow."

He made for the door, and then stopped. "Do you know any other restaurants around here?"

"Well, no, I'm afraid not. I do believe this is normally the only one that serves food at this time of day."

"Why isn't it open, then?" he asked. "What time is it?"

"Eleven. Today it opens at five, though."

"Oh." This was understandable; the group had, after all, left Zanarkand at the first crack of dawn—perhaps around six o'clock. And after that they hadn't had much of a chance to rest. "Well, nice meeting you—"

"No!" she cried, shaking him like a rattle.

"Hey! What are you—?"

"Oh, sorry." She stopped. "But…_please_ stay." She sounded almost desperate—without the almost. "It's just that I would like have company while I practice," Marie explained.

Shuyin considered. He knew he could catch up with Lenne and company later, and it wasn't as if they would leave without him. Still, he told himself he would only stay for ten minutes, at most, before he set back out to find her.

"Alright."

* * *

"Are you sure we should do this without my guardians?" Lenne said doubtfully, turning back to see if any of them had entered the temple.

Auron shook his head shrewdly. "No. We should proceed into the Cloister of Trials—alone. It—might help me decide whether to accompany you or not, I think."

"Really? How?"

"I have the feeling it will."

Seeing how deep and knowing his eyes were, Lenne supposed he knew what he was talking about. Still— "Are you sure we'll be alright?"

"Yes," Auron replied shortly in that dark and mysterious tone he had. "There is no danger in the Cloister. And besides—there is no rule against a summoner being accompanied by a non-guardian." He paused pensively. "Yet."

"Well, if you say so. But…remember, this _is_ my first time going through the Cloister—"

He nodded understandingly and calmly led the summoner to the entrance of the Trials. "We begin."

And they stepped in.

_->->-_

The door behind Auron and Lenne closed. As it did so, the Cloister they had entered was abruptly immersed in flames—they were surrounded by fire. Lenne shielded her eyes from the sudden luminosity of the room and, out of the corner of her eye, glimpsed a small sphere.

She hastily picked up the item and the fire died. _A fire-abating sphere!_ she thought, grateful for its presence. Expecting more flames to erupt in other parts of the Cloister, she pocketed the orb and continued.

Auron surveyed the area carefully and said nothing. He walked a few paces ahead of Lenne, guiding the way.

"I'm will only guide you now because this is your first time," he explained without turning around. "Normally you should be ahead of your guardians, as they are technically only there to guard and support you. You, being the summoner, should do most of the leading." He walked down a corridor and turned left. "After all, this is _your_ story."

"Um—" She turned the same left, and saw a pedestal up ahead bearing another sphere. "So, I have to do the work alone?"

"That's not what I said."

Auron gestured for her to take the sphere from the pedestal; she stepped in front of him and warily took it. Without the weight of the sphere to hold it down, the pedestal lifted upward.

A small, round hole emerged at the bottom of the pedestal, which Lenne could now see. She placed the orb in the hole, and heard a _Click! _noise.

Then—the pedestal rammed into the wall with such force that a reasonably large, oval-shaped opening came about in the wall.

Lenne turned nervously to Auron. He nodded and once again led the way inside the new area.

Here, flames burst up from nowhere, anew. Lenne knew these fires could not physically harm anyone, but they were indeed an obstacle to see past. Knowing this, she brandished the fire-abating sphere from before—and the flames, again, died.

There were two passageways that she and Auron could take. They weren't going to split up, however, due to Lenne's current inexperience in making her way through the Cloister of Trials, so they ambled down the passageway on the right first.

There were two pedestals at the end of this hall. One contained a green sphere, and the other held nothing. Auron told Lenne to grab the sphere and place it on the other pedestal, but nothing happened.

"Uh…did we do it wrong?" Lenne asked, perplexed.

But Auron shook his head. "Take the sphere to the other passageway."

And they did so. When it came to an end, there were three new pedestals. Lenne tried placing the orb in each one, but found that it would not fit.

The man beside her frowned, seemingly not understanding this. Lenne furrowed her brow, wondering what she had to do to proceed. Did she miss something?

She was about to return to the other corridor to make certain she had not overlooked anything, but suddenly heard a roar of fire up ahead. She and Auron shot glances in the direction of the fire, and saw that it was coming at top speed at them.

The flames engulfed the walls on either side and rushed toward them. Without thinking or looking, Lenne hastily thrust the sphere in her hand at the fire, thinking it was the sphere from before—the fire-abating one that had previously eradicated the last few infernos.

But after she flung it in the fire, she realized—

It was the wrong sphere.

As the wrong sphere made contact with the blaze, the entire area burst into white light. She could see nothing—she groped for Auron's arm but felt only thin air.

"Auron? _Auron!_" she shouted. "AURON!" She couldn't believe he was gone.

_He is fine._

Lenne abruptly looked around to see where the voice had come from. But this was useless; she hadn't heard the voice physically—it was more of a telepathic, internal means of communication. "Who's there?"

_Why, call me Ifrit, Summoner. You have finally made it here,_ the voice said._ Welcome—to the Chamber of the Fayth._

* * *

As Marie's hands glided across the musical instrument, Shuyin stared, wide-eyed, with amazement. The notes meshed and formed an almost enchanting melody that stopped him from leaving as he had planned; he merely stood there stupidly, listening. 

When the selection was completed, Marie's hands lifted and she looked up at him. "What did you think?"

"That was _awesome_! When did you learn to play like _that?_"

"Well, I've been playing for over six years now," she responded calmly. "Have you played before?"

Shuyin shook his head. "Nah." Blitzball had been the only thing he had had time for back at home.

"Try."

"Me? But I—"

"Here, it's simple." She stood and sat him on the bench in the front of the piano. "Just place your hands on it like _this_…" She placed his hands on the correct positions of the instrument. Then she demonstrated a five-finger scale, using one finger to play each key. Shuyin hesitantly attempted to follow suit, but found that a few times he accidentally hit two keys at once.

"That's alright, I do that too sometimes," Marie assured him. "But see—playing the piano isn't all that hard. It's a great hobby for entertainment, really. And technology is so complex these days that even some machina can react—positively or negatively—to music."

Shuyin found this information interesting. "They can?"

"Yeah. There are machina that only work on the music's command. Quite interesting, I think, how fast the times are changing. Of course machina are supposed to be prohibited…. But not many people honor that ban."

This was true, Shuyin knew. He shook a few golden locks of hair out of his face. "Then it must be even more beneficial than I thought, to be as musically gifted as you are," he remarked.

Marie considered this. "I suppose it is…. I never thought of it that way; I just always played for the fun of it. Say—you've been good company. I wonder—maybe I could thank you by trying to teach you the basics of playing the piano?"

Shuyin had completely forgotten by now all about his being a guardian of Lenne's—he was too entranced by this breathtaking instrument. He had nothing to lose but maybe an hour or so, right?

He agreed.

Marie took out some folded staff-paper from her pocket, which she evidently carried around just in case it came in handy. She used the staff paper to teach Shuyin what the different lines of the staff stood for, and in this manner Shuyin learned the basic way of how to read notes.

She showed him where the different notes on the piano keys were, which Shuyin found easy to remember: All he had to do was look for "Middle C," as Marie had called it, and count up and down the alphabet from there, starting over after he reached "G."

It seemed a bit complicated at first, but when he asked Marie to review over everything once more, he found that he understood things much more easily. These truly _were_ the basics.

But much to his surprise, Marie went on to explain sharps and flats and the different beats of notes—such as quarter note, half note, eighth note…. She explained major and minor scales…slurs…rests…chords…. The list went on.

Time passed by gradually, and by the end of it, Shuyin realized that he now could play a beginner or slightly intermediate piece, without sight-reading of course. He wasn't skilled enough to do that, for someone who had just started learning today…but it was something to try at a later time.

To him, it didn't even seem like he'd been sitting in that room for long. He did not know the time, and did not ask. He wasn't sure he _wanted_ to know, actually.

He said a very grateful farewell to Marie and quickly left, ready to rejoin the others.

He felt a certain amount of excitement in him; he was actually learning to play the piano. It might be something for him to do now to keep his mind off of blitzball now. And he knew very well that if he was to be a halfway decent guardian, he had to keep focused and keep his mind off of the past. This newfound interest would help greatly.

So. He really _was_ beginning to play the piano.

_Awesome._

* * *

Lenne looked around the Chamber. "This—is the Chamber of the Fayth?" It was nothing but a blank, white abyss. She had heard so many supernatural rumors about it—but this?

_Of course. What did you expect—a ritual chamber? _The voiced laughed. _Yes, summoner, this is Kilika's Chamber of the Fayth. This, I suppose, is your first time entering one._

"Well, almost." She remembered acquiring Valefor, back in Zanarkand. But this was still different. Valefor's chamber must have been a special case. "Um…if it's possible, could you please...become visible?"

She knew she sounded stupid; still, out of the void a tall, muscular, red-haired man materialized. _My mistake. Normally, most Fayths don't appear physically until the summoner states his or her name, _he told her, without moving his lips. _It is a way of making sure there is no imposter._ _Remember that for your upcoming visits to other towns._

She made a mental note of doing so. "Alright. I am Summoner Lenne, from Zanarkand," she said, and the Fayth nodded. Then she thought of something. "Wait—but wouldn't the imposter just lie and state the name of a different summoner?"

_Yes. But the Fayth have a supernatural ability of telling lies apart from truths, you see. _When Ifrit saw that she was about to ask another question, he added, _And yes it _is _possible, though very difficult, for a non-summoner to enter the Chamber. There are ways._

Lenne said nothing. Apparently the Fayth were able to easily guess what others were thinking too. A type of mind reading, she supposed.

When she asked about this, Ifrit calmly replied, _Yes. When a person becomes a Fayth, they obtain a few inhuman abilities. You see, the human soul has much more capability without the burden of the body to weigh it down._

"Oh—so you, and other Fayths, were once human?"

Lenne found that she now had many questions to ask. Valefor, back in Zanarkand, had seemed to be just as knowledgeable as Ifrit was. Perhaps all Fayth had this quality. But then again, she thought, maybe not. After all, the Fayth did seem to differ: Ifrit, for instance, spoke mentally, while Valefor had spoken regularly, with plenty of "thous," "thees," and "thys."

Ifrit nodded, as if he had expected Lenne to already know this.

_All of my kind was, back in our day. You see, when a strong enough entity dies but still has a powerful connection with Spira—that connection stops it from moving on to the Farplane. It's that connection that binds the entity to the planet for a period of time—some become Fayths, while others become unsent…and if the entity's connection to Spira consists of mere anger, it becomes a fiend. _

"Then, if anger causes you to turn into a fiend…what causes you to turn into a Fayth or unsent?" Lenne asked. She no longer worried about where Auron was; he, not being a summoner, had not been allowed into the Chamber.

_Most humans that become Fayth are guardians of a summoner. They become Fayth because of their previous duty to assist summoners with their pilgrimage; assisting summoners is exactly what both guardians _and_ the Fayth are destined to do. _

Well, it made a lot of sense, Lenne thought. She didn't have to say anything for Ifrit to know that she understood.

_Well—if there are no more questions, we shall proceed. I will become your second Aeon, and will assist you throughout your pilgrimage. _The Fayth extended his hand.

Lenne walked forward hesitantly and touched it with her own. The room darkened to blackness, and Lenne felt a surge of the element of fire in her. It didn't hurt—in fact, it gave her more energy, more power.

The void began to grow lighter again, until it resembled the corridor in which Lenne had left Auron. She looked around—and sure enough, there was Auron, smiling expectantly at her.

"You received the Aeon?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

Lenne nodded, grinning. "Thanks for helping."

He nodded solemnly and led the way out.

After leaving the Temple, Lenne looked around once more to find one of her guardians. When none appeared, Auron suggested going back to the hotel room; it was probable that they would have met up there, and were waiting for her.

Lenne did so, and when she stepped into the room she saw Rauke, Darian, Reina, and Shuyin all staring at her. "Where have you been!" Darian cried, after a moment's silence. "We've been looking for you!"

Rauke nodded. "Although Shuyin turned up late too." Shuyin smirked but said nothing of his prior whereabouts.

"I just finished accompanying Lenne through the Cloister of Trials," Auron explained. At this, the others gaped; they had been expecting to guide her through it themselves. "Forgive me."

"It's alright, guys. We still got the Aeon!" Lenne exclaimed encouragingly.

They all raised their eyebrows.

"Don't believe me? Here, I'll show you."

She brandished her staff and called out, _"Ifrit!" _Immediately, a four-legged mammal the size of a bear emerged from thin air. Its dark brown fur had small red-orange spots that resembled flames, and its piercing eyes bulged as it roared.

Everyone stared at it. "Uh…alright, we believe you," Shuyin said slowly, wary of the thing.

"Good!"

Reina looked out of the window behind her. "It seems to be a few hours after noon—perhaps we should keep going. The less time we spend, the better."

"You mean move on to the next town?" Darian asked, turning to her. She nodded slowly, as if thinking he shouldn't have had to ask.

"She's right, we should move on. Sin has to be defeated as soon as possible," Shuyin put in.

"But we just got here!"

"And now we're just _leaving_." Shuyin grabbed Darian's collar and dragged him out of the hotel room, with Reina following. Before exiting with them, she turned around and looked at Lenne.

She pointed at Ifrit, who was now in the corner, letting out droppings on the bed.

"You might want to dismiss him now," she said, wrinkling her nose at the suddenly nasty odor in the room. She then left hastily, and Rauke was not hesitant to follow suit. Lenne hurriedly dismissed the Aeon.

She then turned to Auron, who seemed deep in thought. "Well? Are you coming with us, until we reach Bevelle?" she asked him.

There was a long silence. Then—

"I've made up my mind. I'll come."


	7. The Machina War

Author's Note- Another reviewer! I think I'll respond to Uchiha Aywin right here, while we're on the subject of reviews. The reason why I had the impression that the Yevonite religion (and Sin) existed during Lenne and Shuyin's time, was because there WERE summoners and fayths during the Machina War. I assumed that because of that, it would only be sensible for pilgrimages and Yevonites to exist at that time as well.

It turns out that I was actually right about the pilgrimages, but wrong about the Yevonites. Summoners during Lenne's time only acquired Aeons so that they could assist Zanarkand in the Machina War, not so that they could defeat Sin. In _FFX-2_, Shuyin was Lenne's only guardian—so there were definitely summoners during that time.

People only came up with the idea of Yevonite churches so that they could cover up the mistakes they made in the past and hide them from the Spirans. In the game, it was Yunalesca who spread the news about the Yevonite church and how a summoner could kill Sin by gaining the Final Aeon. So it was probably at least a good 10 years or so after Lenne's and Shuyin's death that Sin showed up.

But—who cares.

MOVING ON.

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, _PILGRIMAGE OF A THOUSAND YEARS!_ This chapter is dedicated to the celebration of your one-year anniversary! n.n;;;;;

* * *

_Chapter Seven: The Machina War_

"Are we there yet?"

"Nope."

"…are we there—_yet?_"

"Nope."

"…NOW are we there?"

"No."

"…what about now?"

"No!"

"…are we—"

"NO, DAMN IT! SHUT THE F—"

"Shuyin!" Lenne cried, stopping the guardian from carrying out his curse. "We _are_ followers of Yevon, you know. We can't just go around swearing at—!"

Shuyin sighed. "Alright, alright," he said. "But someone PLEASE hurry us up to Djose… We've been traveling for days since Kilika, with _little_ rest." He yawned.

"Djose shouldn't be far from here," Auron stated in his low voice. When the others stared at him questioningly, he said calmly, "I've…visited there before; I should know." No one added further question; apparently Auron had a past of which he wasn't keen to inform them. Still, to reassure the others that Auron's judgment was indeed correct, Rauke nodded approvingly.

By now, days of nonstop travel had passed since the group had departed Kilika. Of course no one was able to keep exact track of time, for the days and nights of journeying had caused the whole experience to be a huge blur, but they could estimate.

After leaving Kilika, the group had had to avoid stopping at Luca (even if there WAS a "fighting tournament" that was supposed to take place there soon) and continue on with the pilgrimage. Of course Darian had forced everyone to promise that they'd return to Luca after the pilgrimage ended, and Shuyin wasn't reluctant to agree with him, but for now, Auron had advised them, it was smarter to get a good head start on the pilgrimage. And _that_ meant no unnecessary stops until they had made decent progress—and that wouldn't be for a while, at the pace they were going.

They had traveled through the Mi'ihen Highroad and Mushroom Rock, which, according to Auron, had also existed during his pilgrimage with Yuna. Lenne found it interesting, and extremely suspicious, that such places could exist for

"Wait a minute. Is that it over there?" Reina inquired abruptly, pointing ahead.

They looked—and were shocked and dismayed. Evidently Djose was not very large, even though this time period was indeed the Age of Machina, when the use of machina thrived the most. In fact, Djose was hardly large enough to be called a city or town; all it consisted of was a Yevonite Temple, a very small field in front of the entrance to said temple, and a pathway that seemed to lead to other Spiran places.

But that was not what had shocked and dismayed them:

A small ways from the temple of Djose was what looked like two different armies raging war against one another, one of them seemingly winning over the other. One side was truly brutal, their swords and other weaponry clashing with the weaponry of the other side, but the other side had a smaller number of warriors, and was obviously not as skilled in combat. Lenne stared, gasping with renewed horror as she recognized a certain symbol on the apparel of the weaker side—

Was this—? Could it be—?

"Oh my god…" she breathed, overwhelmed. "What IS this!" _That symbol! It's—from…_

"ZANARKAND?" Darian shouted, creepily completing her thought.

"…this is a war," Shuyin concluded, equally dismayed at the sight; they had most _definitely_ not be expecting this. "But—why? What's happened?"

Auron seemed to be thinking hurriedly. "What year did you say this was, again?" he asked Reina urgently.

She had clasped her hand to her mouth, astonished, but now she removed it and said, "F-fifty years a-after the birth of Sin…"

Something in his mind clicked. "_Oh no._" He began to run forward, not wasting any time. "Quick! Follow me!" Sprinting, they fled from the battle, into the woods on the left. Following Auron, Lenne and the others hastily moved past trees and other wildlife and emerged from the woods, in an area behind the Djose Temple.

In this area, there were no brawling warriors, nor anyone else who seemed likely to harm them. Instead, there were about half a dozen priests wandering about helplessly, looked very frustrated with the situation.

Darian leaped forward, wanting information, and grabbed one by the arm. "You! What—the HELL—is going on?"

The priest was startled but not fearful. "You don't _know_? Haven't you seen the battling warriors?"

"No, and yes! Tell us what this is all about, quickly," Darian demanded. "And don't falter."

The priest looked a bit worried—but who wouldn't be, under the circumstances? "Well, if you are not from around here," he said, "I suppose, naturally, you would not know about this. Very well, but after I tell you, you must leave this place immediately; it is much too dangerous for teenagers to linger."

Auron and Rauke stepped forward heatedly, not keen to be deemed teens, but the priest merely shrugged at their presence. Lenne, Shuyin, Darian, and Reina were not pleased at the apparent prejudice of the priest, but did not dare say anything that might stop him from explaining the situation.

"As you may know, the war raging between Bevelle and Zanarkand is beginning to—"

"WHAT?" Lenne interrupted suddenly. "_Zanarkand_? And—Bevelle? There is no war between them!"

"Hmm? You did not know of it? It was declared merely a few days ago; I suppose it might be rational that news of it hasn't quite spread _everywhere_. I am very sorry that I must be the bearer of such bad news, but I am afraid it is true: the cities of Bevelle and Zanarkand are, indeed, at war."

Lenne felt herself going dizzy. "But…but…" But she could not protest, for she had now been out on her pilgrimage for what seemed to be about a week. Since then, she had made little contact with the outside world, and thus, news of a war going on between her hometown and Bevelle could not readily reach her. "This—it—cannot be true!"

Reina, Darian, and Shuyin shook their heads helplessly; Zanarkand was their hometown too. How could they not have known?

"I'm afraid it is, miss," the priest said sadly. "The machina-heavy city of Bevelle…and the summoner city of Zanarkand…too many disputes have occurred between them, and apparently one went much, much too far. It resulted in—this war. I'm sorry, but it is true: Spira has become a world of conflict and hatred."

"But then, why would Bevellians be attacking—_this _place?" Shuyin queried.

"Well…." He sighed. "We think the Bevellians are trying to force the warriors and summoners of Zanarkand to act. They might want all of Spira to realize that they aren't going to back down, and that this war is not something to take lightly. The Bevellians probably want to be recognized—and feared. And in order for that to happen, they must prove themselves powerful—so they have attacked us and attempted to destroy the Djose Temple to make their intentions known."

"And—what would those intentions be?" Shuyin asked.

Auron narrowed his eyes, deep in thought. "Most likely to come up with their own version of the Yevonite religion, and to get all or most Spirans to follow their new religion."

"But…why would they want _that?_" Lenne managed to ask. "I thought _everyone_ believed in the ways of Yevon!"

"Not everyone," Auron replied shortly.

Lenne was sure that the fact that Auron lived in the future was an advantage for him; with knowledge of how Spira would turn up in years to come, Auron could come to conclusions about what Bevelle might want _now. _If Bevelle ever managed to convert Spira to another type of Yevonite religion, it would mean that the Spira that Auron had lived in during the future, would be based on that religion. Lenne found this concept hard to understand, but she knew, somehow, that Auron knew a lot more about the past (which was now the present) than he cared to tell.

Lenne shook her head. She was only confusing herself by trying to understand Auron's ways. Because of this, she gave up.

"If you say so," she said.

There was a short moment of silence. To remind Lenne of what they had come here to do, Rauke said shortly, "Aeon."

"Oh!" Lenne suddenly exclaimed, turning to the priest. "I…I'm Summoner Lenne," she explained to him.  
"We came here to collect the Aeon at the Temple of Djose—"

"So we need to enter it," Darian concluded, cutting her off.

The priest eyed her warily. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

Lenne rolled her eyes anxiously and called upon the Aeon she had most recently received, Ifrit. The huge creature sprang from beneath the ground and roared, beating its chest like an ape.

"WHAAH!" The priest jumped three feet into the air and apologized. "Sorry, just had to make sure… Well, if you _really_ insist on obtaining the Aeon of Djose, I suppose you must proceed into the temple. But _please_—hurry! Our warriors won't be able to hold of the Bevellians much longer, and soon the Bevellians will be able to proceed and destroy the temple.

"Further away from here, in the protection of the woods, we're making finishing touches on an airship, so that by the time the temple is destroyed, the remaining people of Djose can make a quick escape from this place. If you enter the Temple, you must rush, for we estimate that in about 4 minutes, our remaining warriors will be wiped out and the Bevellians will be free to destroy the place."

"…you sure talk a lot," Darian commented.

Auron sent him a sharp look, and then turned to Lenne. "Summoner, you have four minutes to obtain the Aeon in the temple and leave—or you will die. The rest of us, your guardians, shall help the Djose warriors in the battle until then."

"But—can someone come with me? I—"

Reina raised her hand.

Then—Shuyin did too. The others protested, thinking that he would be more useful battling against the Bevellians, but for some reason Shuyin refused to leave Lenne. "I want to make sure she's alright," he said quietly.

Darian raised his eyebrows. "That's not needed. She'll be fine!"

Shuyin glared. "For ONCE, can you just—"

"Can I just _what_?" Darian snapped.

"Not the time for that," Auron swiftly reminded them. "Less than four minutes left."

"He's right, we have to go! Quick!" Lenne cried. The priest showed her, Shuyin, and Reina a back way into the temple, where they would not be bothered by the brawling soldiers—for now.

"Remember: only four minutes," Darian cried as he, Auron, and Rauke made their way to the site of the battle, leaving the others to their own important duty.

The back, secret entrance was a considerably small tunnel-like route beneath the ground, through which Lenne and the others had to crawl to proceed. Spiders crept up the walls of the tunnel, and Lenne had the distinct impression that the thing might collapse any minute.

Shuyin, who was in front of the two girls, led the way through the tunnel, not daring to pause or start any conversation that might force them to lose time. He, followed by the others, came to the end of the path, took a sharp right, and began to ascend to higher ground.

They emerged from the tunnel and looked around. The new area was naught but a closed square—there was no path to take, no intersections to cross, just a room with no exit. _Oh dear, _Lenne thought, beginning to worry. _Will we even be able to make it on time? There's—_

She stopped; something had caught her eye. A movement of some sort—and it _wasn't_ from Shuyin or Reina. She narrowed her eyes and discovered what the movement was:

The walls were caving in.

"DAMN!" Shuyin cried, banging his fists against them.

"Oh, no…." Reina tried to cast a Slow spell on the walls to make them move in a much less rapid manner, but nothing happened. She gasped.

Lenne was horrified. She didn't know what to do. Without thinking, for comfort, she grabbed the nearest object to her—and it ended up being Shuyin's hand. She didn't even notice, but Shuyin's eyes flickered down to look at their coupled hands, and he didn't even think of letting go.

But the walls were closing in more rapidly now, and they wouldn't hesitate to crush the three of them into pancakes.

Shuyin looked up at the ceiling, praying for a miracle—

And saw one. There, seemingly engraved onto the ceiling, was a square. He peered more closely at it and realized that it was actually an exit leading to another passageway. "Look!" he cried, pointing at the thing with his idle hand.

"What is it?" Reina asked hurriedly, noticing the fact that the walls were now so close together that she could hardly stretch her leg out between them.

"Our exit."

Forcing himself to let go of Lenne's hand, Shuyin leaped into the air and rammed his fist into the square. At first nothing happened, but then, gradually, the thing began to open like a trap door, and revealed a new room. Shuyin hopped upward into the room.

"QUICK!" He thrust out his hand and, just as the walls shut together with a SLAM, he flung Lenne and Reina up to his level.

Gasping for breath, Lenne hugged Shuyin tightly, glad to be safe for now. But then Reina was quick to remind them that they only had probably about a minute left.

"Damn," Shuyin muttered. "What _now_?"

Lenne looked around. There, at the end of the corridor, was a glyph the size of an entire wall. "Do you think…?" she asked, pointing at it uncertainly.

"There's nothing else in this room," Shuyin said. "So that _must_ be it!"

"Or it can be another trap," Reina put in.

"I'll have to go ahead anyway." Lenne strode forward, then hesitated for some reason. Shuyin smiled at her and held out his hand. "Erm…what're you doing?" she asked him.

"Just take my hand. Like before. I'll help you."

"_Before_?"

"Just a few moments ago, you—"

"_Oh! _I didn't realize! I'm so sorry!" Lenne was astonished that she had done this, and a bit embarrassed. But when Shuyin insisted that it was alright, she faltered for moment, and then, without another word, stretched out her own hand, and Shuyin took it in his. Reina stayed behind, smirking slightly, while Shuyin and Lenne strode together to the glyph. Lenne took a breath, then—

"AHHHHHH!"

She whipped around. "_What!"_

Reina clapped her hand to her mouth and pointed at a wall, which was beginning to smoke. "They—they've—" she stuttered. "They're burning down the temple!"

"NO!" Shuyin shouted, his eyes bulging. "Lenne, QUICK! _Touch the glyph!"_

"But I—" She didn't know why, but there was something about her current physical connection with Shuyin that made her? _I don't care about Shuyin in _that _manner! So what does it matter?_

"Lennie…" Reina whispered. "This temple…is on fire…! It's going to— We were too slow!"

"No, we'll live through this," Shuyin said, determined. "I'll make sure of that. Now, Lenne, GO!"

"Alright." And with that, she thrust her hand at the glyph—

And everything went white.

She knew she was now in the Chamber of the Fayth.

_Hurry! _a voice said within her. "I—I'm Summoner Lenne Stenning, of Zanarkand," she said firmly and quickly, remembering what Ifrit had told her to do back in Kilika, whenever she entered a Chamber of the Fayth.

Immediately a four-legged creature with a long, golden horn and a very bony structure materialized from nowhere and looked at her. This was evidently the Fayth of Djose in its Aeon form, for the creature did not speak, but merely nodded its head, sensing her distress. _Ixion, _it told her mentally, evidently telling her its name.

"Alright, Ixion," Lenne said. "Let's go."

->->-

She blinked, and found herself back in the room with Shuyin and Reina. Reina was continually casting Blizzard on the walls of the room, trying to stop them from burning away too quickly, and Shuyin was hacking at the floor, trying to get it to open up and allow them to escape. Nothing was working.

"I've got the Aeon!" Lenne exclaimed. "How do we get out of here?"

Reina was obviously very frustrated. "I don't know—but this—is NOT—working," she said. "But maybe if I just…" She seemed to have gotten an idea. "I know! Lenne…maybe if you and I team up, we can blast our way out of here."

"What? How?"

"Your Aeons, my magic, and Shuyin's...um...support."

Shuyin scowled. "Why do _I _have to be the magic-less warrior?" he grumbled, but stepped aside anyway.

_Alright, _Lenne thought, now standing beside Reina, who was concentrating her power on one of the walls. _Aeons! Come to me!_

Nothing happened.

_Oh, no. _

She concentrated with all her mental strength, and creamed, out loud this time, "AEONS!" And immediately, Lenne saw a massive bird, Valefor, a bear-like creature, Ifrit, and her newly acquired Aeon, Ixion, line up side-by-side in front of her. Reina, who was to her left, had her staff out, and was staring up at the ceiling, her eyes turning entirely white. The end of her staff slowly began to glow with an incredible intensity, and Lenne knew she was ready.

Not knowing how much longer Reina could hold out like this, she screamed, "AEONS, COMBINE POWERS!" and all three of her Aeons nodded.

Ixion's horn began to glow, and out of both Valefor's and Ifrit's mouths, a large ball of energy appeared. All three Aeons were ready; the front of the room began to brighten. Then, Reina, who had been awaiting her turn, cried out, "_DEATH!"_

The Aeons, and Reina's powerful Death spell, made contact with the wall—

And the temple blew up.

* * *

"Oh my god! What have we done!" Reina cried, staring at the huge mass of rubble that used to be a temple.

"All you did was try to find a way outside of the thing, so we weren't killed," Shuyin reminded her. "After all, the temple was being destroyed by the Bevellians anyway…." He patted her on the back, but, distressed, she cast a Water spell on him.

"Hey—!" he cried, drenched.

But they had no more time for conversation, for Darian, Auron, and Rauke had just caught sight of them from in the woods, and were now sprinting in their direction. "Hey, you're all alright!" Darian exclaimed, grinning.

"Yeah, we just got the Aeon…but—" Lenne gestured to the destroyed temple. "It's gone."

"Oh…"

But there was no time for grief, and they knew it. "Well…the Bevellian warriors have completed their task, and they're making their escape now," Darian continued hastily.

"Are we going after them, or what?" Shuyin demanded, wanting revenge for all the trouble they'd caused in just a few minutes.

"No! There's too many! Why _else_ do you think we couldn't hold them off for long?"

"So we just let them run away FREELY?"

Auron shook his head. "There's no time left to stop them; one of the Bevellians set a time bomb on this place."

"So…they're making their escape—" Lenne said.

"And now we make ours," Rauke concluded.

And, as if these words summoned him, the priest from earlier came running at the group, from the woods. "The airship is ready! You must all hurry! Follow me!" He sprinted back through the woods, and Lenne and the others followed. Brushing past countless trees, bushes, and—yes—a few fiends, Lenne soon found herself and her guardians emerging from the woods, and entering a small plain on which a particularly large machina airship sat.

"We're getting in THIS?" Darian asked, interested. Of course he was the first to leap inside. Reina took a quick look at her surroundings, then followed suit, and soon the only remaining people in Djose who were not either dead or in the airship were Lenne, Shuyin, and the priest.

Lenne didn't move. She knew her pilgrimage was going by speedily. She had started the journey only perhaps a week ago, and already she had obtained thee-fourths of the Aeons that she needed to acquire before returning to Zanarkand to obtain the Final Aeon and defeat Sin. She was astonished and dismayed by the sudden news of Zanarkand being in war with Bevelle. Things were just happening so quickly—

First, Sin being alive again…then Auron…and now this? The pilgrimage was _not_ going smoothly, she knew that.

…but…

As she took a fleeting glance at the natural forest surrounding her, and Shuyin standing right next to her, squeezing her hand with his, she couldn't help but wonder:

With this new airship, wouldn't the pilgrimage be going by a whole lot faster?

After all…

The pilgrimage had been moving along quick enough when she and her guardians were traveling by foot. What, in Yevon's name, would happen once she began to travel with an airship?

Well, of course the pilgrimage would be over a whole lot sooner, for they could travel from one place to another in only a matter of hours now. But—she now felt—what was the word?—_attached _to her pilgrimage and her guardians. She had grown close to both of them and knew she would have to let go of them very soon, because—well…

Her pilgrimage would soon be over. All she had to do now was visit Bevelle, and then take the airship to Zanarkand, and obtain the Final Aeon and— Everything would be gone.

She knew that. But couldn't accept it. But then, she thought, the only reason why she'd agreed to go on this journey in the _first_ place was so she could defeat Sin, and save Spira from more anguish. Why should she be so selfish as to delay things _just_ so that she can spend more time with Shuyin?

_And also Reina, Darian, Auron, and Rauke, _she was quick to add.

But she had to admit—there was something special about her relationship with Shuyin. It was nothing physical, nothing that they said out-loud to each other, but when they looked into each other's eyes—

_No, _she thought. _I'm a summoner! I can't afford to waste my emotion on things like this. _

But even as she thought that, she squeezed Shuyin's hand and smiled at him.

Her smiled soon faded away and she said in a cheerless half-whisper, "It's almost over…"

"Yeah, it is." He smiled. "But we'll be alright."

Somehow Lenne had the feeling that when he had said the word "we", he wasn't referring to any of the other guardians: he was referring to him and Lenne.

The priest cocked his head to the side. "Are you going in or not?" he said impatiently. "There's not enough time to dawdle here!" He brushed past them and entered the airship.

"…let's go," Shuyin said, and lead her inside.

She turned around to take one last fleeting glance at Djose, as if saying goodbye to it, before the doors slid closed.

She wasn't really saying goodbye to Djose, she knew; she was really saying goodbye to her past life: The useless, meaningless life she had had without the airship, without quick travel from one city to another, without a sufficient amount of Aeons…

…_without Shuyin._

* * *

Author's Note- Looks like slight romance is finally kicking in, ne? How do you think I'll convey it? Will Shuyin ever succeed in wooing Lenne? Or will he just blow up? Review, and await the next chapter to find out! n.n;;; 


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